LI  FE  -  OF-  DEAN  -  FARR  A  R 

BY-  RTA-  FARRAR 


*   JUL  31  1904  * 


Division  LI 

BX  5199    .F37  F37  1904 
Farrar,  Reginald. 
The  life  of  Frederic  Willia 
Farrar,  D.D. ,  F.R.S.  ,  etc. 


THE  LIFE  OF 
FREDERIC  WILLIAM  FARRAR 


Boohs  by  Dean  farrar 


MEN  I  HAVE  KNOWN.     12mo.  $1.75. 

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THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 
HEW  YORK 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/lifeoffredericwiOOfarr 


THE  LIFE 

OF 

FREDERIC  WILLIAM  FARRAR 

D.D.,  F.R.S.,  etc. 
SOMETIME  DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY 


BY  HIS  SOI 

REGINALD  FARRAR 


NEW  YORK 
THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1904, 
BY  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 


Published  March,  1904. 


TO 


PREFACE 


In  writing  my  father's  life,  I  have  aimed  at  producing 
rather  a  memoir  of  such  length  as  should  be  within  the 
compass  of  the  general  reader  than  a  complete  and 
exhaustive  biography.  I  have  adopted  the  method  of 
inviting  friends  and  colleagues  who  were  associated 
with  my  father  at  different  periods  of  his  life  to  con- 
tribute reminiscences  of  those  periods,  and  to  these 
friends,  naming  them  in  the  order  in  which  their  con- 
tributions appear  in  this  book,  it  is  now  my  pleasant 
duty  to  tender  hearty  thanks  for  their  kind  and  generous 
response;  to  — 

Professor  E.  Spencer  Beesly. 

Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  K.  C.  S.  I. 

His  Honour  Judge  Vernon  Lushington. 

Canon  Henry  Bell. 

Mr.  George  Russell. 

Mr.  Walter  Leaf. 

V.  S. 

The  Very  Reverend  Dr.  H.  Montagu  Butler,  Master 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
Mr.  E.  F.  E.  Thompson. 

The  Reverend  Dr.  H.  A.  James,  Head  Master  of 
Rugby  School. 

Professor  C.  E.  Vaughan. 
Mr.  C.  L.  Graves. 
J.  D.  R. 

The  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Montgomery. 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

The  Reverend  W.  E.  Sims. 

The  Reverend  W.  J.  Somerville. 

The  Venerable  Archdeacon  Vesey. 

Mr.  T.  Archibald  Brooks,  Principal  of  the  Govern- 
ment High  School,  Delhi. 

The  Reverend  Canon  Page-Roberts. 

The  following  members  of  my  own  family,  Mrs.  J.  S. 
Thomas,  The  Honourable  Mrs.  J.  S.  Northcote,  The 
Reverend  Eric  M.  Farrar,  and  The  Reverend  Ivor  G. 
Farrar  have  contributed  reminiscences,  which  I  grate- 
fully acknowledge. 

My  mother,  to  whom  I  dedicate  this  volume,  and  my 
wife  have  given  me  much  valuable  assistance  in  the 
way  of  advice  and  criticism  and  in  revising  the  proof 
sheets. 

I  have  also  to  acknowledge  permission  courteously 
accorded  me  by  the  respective  editors  to  make  extracts 
from  the  following  periodicals ;  from  — 

The  Temple  Magazine .      The  Quiver. 
The  British  Monthly.        The  Manchester  Guardian. 
The  Cornhill  Magazine.    The  Morning  Advertiser. 
Great  Thoughts. 

I  have  also,  by  permission  of  the  publishers,  made 
use  of  extracts  from  "  Men  I  Have  Known "  and  the 
"Biographical  Life  of  Christ"  (Cassell  &  Co.).  A 
bibliography  of  my  father's  principal  published  writings, 
compiled  by  Miss  Zoe  Hawley,  has  been  added. 

To  the  help  thus  promptly  and  generously  given  is 
mainly  due  whatever  of  value  the  Memoir  may  possess. 
If  I  may  be  allowed  a  word  of  personal  reference,  I 
would  beg  indulgence  for  many  shortcomings  in  the 
work,  of  which  I  am  painfully  conscious,  on  the  ground 


PREFACE 


ix 


that  it  has  been  compiled  in  the  scant  leisure  of  a  busy 
official  life.  I  have  tried  impartially  to  paint  the  por- 
trait of  my  father  as  he  lived,  not  ignoring  the  fact  that 
his  work  was  often  the  subject  of  criticism,  but  writing 
throughout,  as  a  son  must  needs  write  of  such  a  father, 
in  a  spirit  of  loving  reverence.  If  I  have  in  any  meas- 
ure conveyed  the  lesson  that  a  manhood  spent  in  the 
service  of  God  and  his  fellow-men  was  the  direct  out- 
come of  a  youth  of  stainless  purity  and  strenuous  effort, 
if  I  have  helped  any  to  realise  the  renowned  preacher 
and  writer  as  a  genial  friend,  a  most  loving  husband, 
and  a  most  tender  father,  I  have  not  wholly  failed  in 
my  task. 

R.  FARRAR. 

Chiswick, 

November,  1903. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Bibliography   xiii 

CHAPTER 

I.  Childhood  and  Reminiscences  of  his  Parents  .  i 

II.  The  Schoolboy   10 

III.  The  Student   21 

IV.  The  Undergraduate   38 

V.    Assistant  Master  at  Marlborough  53 

VI.    Harrow  Days   71 

VII.  Head-master  of  Marlborough  .  .  .  .141 
VIII.    The  Life  of  Christ  and  Other  Theological 

Writings   191 

IX.  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster      ....  216 

X.  The  Parish  Priest   234 

XI.    The  Preacher  of  "Eternal  Hope"    .       .       .  254 

XII.    Visit  to  America   284 

XIII.  Bread  upon  the  Waters   302 

XIV.  Dean  of  Canterbury   313 

Index   353 

xi 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Dean  Farrar  Frontispiece 

Photogravure  of  a  Portrait  from  Life. 

FACING  PAGE 

Charles  Pinhorn  Farrar   2 

Father  of  Dean  Farrar. 

King  William's  College,  Isle  of  Man  ....  10 

Trinity  College,  Cambridge   38 

The  Park,  Harrow   94 

Where  Farrar  lived  as  Assistant  Master. 

Mrs.  Farrar   118 

Dr.  Farrar,  Mrs.  Farrar,  and  a  Group  of  Students 

at  Harrow   132 

Dr.  Farrar  in  Middle  Life   166 

St.  Margaret's  and  Westminster  Abbey      .      .      .  218 

The  Deanery,  Canterbury   314 

Deanery  Study,  Canterbury    324 

Dean  Farrar   336 

Last  Photograph  taken. 

Canterbury  Cathedral    348 


Second  Arch  from  right  is  Site  of  the  Dean's  Grave. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


1857 

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1858 

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1903. 

1859 

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i860 

Julian  Home:  a  Tale  of  College  Life.  A.  &  C.  Black.  Eighteenth 
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1862 

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1865 

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1866 

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1867 

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xiii 


xiv 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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1870 

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1871 

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Macmillan.    Ninth  edition,  1892. 

1873 

Silence  and  the  Voices  of  God,  with  Other  Sermons.  Macmillan. 

Eighth  edition,  1892. 
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Eighteenth  edition,  1903. 

1874 

Tha  Life  of  Christ.   Cassell.   Ninth  edition  now  being  published. 

1876 

In  the  Days  of  thy  Youth :   Sermons  preached  at  Marlborough 
College.    Macmillan.    Eleventh  edition,  1899. 

1878 

Eternal  Hope :  Five  sermons  preached  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Macmillan.    Eighteenth  edition,  1901. 
Language  and  Languages,  Families  of  Speech,  etc.  Longmans. 

Sixth  edition,  1899. 
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1892. 

1879 

Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,  with  maps.    Cassell.    10  editions. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xv 


1880 

Ephphatha ;  or,  the  Amelioration  of  the  World :  Sermons.  Mac- 
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The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke,  with  maps,  notes,  and  intro- 
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Press.    Seventeenth  edition,  1902. 

1881 

Mercy  and  Judgement.    Macmillan.    Third  edition,  1894. 
Words  of  Truth  and  Wisdom.    W.  H.  Allen.   Third  edition,  1900. 
Grant,  Edinburgh. 

1882 

The  Early  Days  of  Christianity.    Cassell.    5  editions. 
Music  in  Religion  and   Life  :   a  Sermon.     Simpkin,  Marshall. 
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1883 

General  Aims  of  Teacher  and  Form  Management :  Two  Lectures 
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1895. 

My  Object  in  Life.    Cassell.    Eighth  edition,  1894. 

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Press.    Fifth  edition,  1902. 

1884 

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The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke  in  Greek,  with  maps,  notes,  and 
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1886 

The  History  of  Interpretation  :  Bampton  Lectures,  1885.  Macmillan. 
Sermons  and  Addresses  delivered  in  America.    Macmillan.  Second 
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xvi 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


1887 

Everyday  Christian  Life  :  or,  Sermons  by  the  Way.  Isbister. 

Reprinted  repeatedly. 
Solomon,  his  Life  and  Times.    (Men  of  the  Bible.)  Nisbet. 

1888 

Africa,  Drink  Trade.  (From  Contemporary  Review)  Home  Words 
Office. 

1889 

Lives  of  the  Fathers  :  Church  History  in  Biography.   A.  &  C.  Black. 

Sermons.    Sonnenschein.    Fourth  edition,  1898. 

The  Epistle  of  Paul  the  Apostle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  Greek,  with  notes 
and  introduction.  (Camb.  Gk.  Text  for  Sch.)  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Press.    Third  edition,  1894. 

1890 

The  Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke.    (Smaller  Camb.  Bib.  for  Sch.) 

Cambridge  University  Press.    Eighth  edition,  1900. 
The  Minor  Prophets.    Nisbet.    Very  large  sale. 
The  Passion  Play  at  Oberammergau.    Heinemann.    Third  edition, 

1900. 

Truths  to  Live  By  :  Companion  to  Everyday  Christian  Life.  Isbis- 
ter.   Reprinted  repeatedly. 
With  the  Poets  :  a  Selection  of  English  Poetry.  Dent. 

1891 

Darkness  and  Dawn :  a  Tale  of  the  Days  of  Nero.  Longmans. 

Eighth  edition,  1898. 
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1892 

The  Voice  from  Sinai :  the  Eternal  Bases  of  the  Moral  Law.  Isbis- 
ter.  Reprinted  repeatedly. 

1893 

Our  English  Minsters.  (Joint  authorship.)  Isbister.  Reprinted 
repeatedly. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xvii 


The  Lord's  Prayer :    Sermons  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Isbister. 

Reprinted  repeatedly. 
The  First  Book  of  Kings.    (The  Expositor's  Bible.)  Hodder. 

i  edition. 

1894 

Christ,  Paul,  and  Early  Christianity. 

The  Life  of  Christ  as  represented  in  Art.    Black.    Third  edition, 
1 901. 

The  Second  Book  of  Kings.    (The  Expositor's  Bible.)  Hodder. 
Second  edition,  1902. 

1895 

Biblical  Character  Sketches.    ( Joint  authorship.)    Nisbet.  Third 
edition,  1898. 

Gathering  Clouds  :  Days  of  St.  Chrysostom.   Longmans.  2  editions. 
The  Book  of  Daniel.    (The  Expositor's  Bible.)    Hodder.  Second 
edition,  1903. 

Woman's  Work  as  Daughter,  as  Wife,  and  as  Mother.  Nisbet. 
Second  edition,  1895. 

1896 

The  Bible  and  the  Child :  the  Higher  Criticism  and  the  Teaching 

of  the  Young.    (Joint  authorship.)    Clarke.    1  edition. 
The  Young  Man  Master  of  Himself.    Nisbet.   Third  edition,  1898. 

1897 

Prophets  of  the  Christian  Faith.     (Joint  authorship.)  Clarke. 
1  edition. 

Sin  and  its  Conquerors.    (Preachers  of  To-day.)  Nisbet. 

The  Bible :  its  Meaning  and  Supremacy.     Longmans.  Second 

edition,  1897. 
The  Herods.    Nisbet.    1  edition. 

Westminster  Abbey.    (Reprinted  from  "Our  English  Minsters.") 
Isbister.    Reprinted  repeatedly. 

1898 

Allegories.    Longmans.    1  edition. 

Great  Books :  Bunyan,  Shakespeare,  Dante,  Milton,  The  Imitation. 
Isbister.    Reprinted  repeatedly. 


xviii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Temperance  Reform  as  required  by  National  Righteousness  and 
Patriotism :  Lees  and  Raper  Memornl  Lecture.  Nisbet. 
Second  edition,  1899. 

Texts  explained ;  or,  Helps  to  understand  the  New  Testament. 
Longmans. 

True  Religion  :  Sermons.  Freemantle.  Second  edition,  1903. 
(World's  Pulpit  Series.)    Brown  &  Langham. 


1900 

Progress  in  the  Reign  of  Queen  Victoria :  a  Brief  Record  of  Sixty 

Years.  Bliss. 
Selections:  the  Life  of  Christian  Service. 

The  Life  of  Lives :  Further  Studies  in  the  Life  of  Christ.  Cassell. 
Second  edition,  1903. 


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xix 


EDITIONS  PUBLISHED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
1868 

Seekers  after  God.    Lippincott  &  Co. 

1870 

The  Witness  of  History  to  Christ :  Hulsean  Lectures.  Macmillan 
&  Co. 

1871 

The  Fall  of  Man  and  Other  Sermons.    Macmillan  &  Co. 

1874 

The  Life  of  Christ.    Cassell.    Dutton.  Wendell. 

Silence  and  the  Voices  of  God,  with  Other  Sermons.  Dutton. 

1885 

An  Eulogy  on  General  Grant;  Westminster  Abbey,  Aug.  4th,  1885. 
Dutton. 

Inspiration:  a  Symposium.  Whittaker. 

Success  in  Life :  prefaced  by  a  Brief  Biography.  Cupples. 

Treasure  Thoughts  from  the  Writings  of  F.  W.  Farrar.  Lothrop. 

1886 

The  History  of  Interpretation:  the  Bampton  Lectures  for  1885. 
Dutton. 

Lectures,  Addresses,  Essays.  Alden. 

Sermons  and  Addresses  delivered  in  America,  with  an  introduction 
by  P.  Brooks.  Dutton. 

1887 

Africa  and  the  Drink  Trade.    National  Temperance. 

Books  which  have  influenced  Me.  Pott. 

The  Atonement :  a  Symposium.  Whittaker. 

Non-Biblical  Systems  of  Religion  :  a  Symposium.  Whittaker. 


XX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


1888 

Everyday  Christian  Life ;  or,  Sermons  by  the  Way.  Whittaker. 
Solomon :  His  Life  and  Times.    (Men  of  the  Bible  Series.)  Ran- 
dolph. 

Twenty  Sermons.    (The  Contemporary  Pulpit.)  Whittaker. 

1890 

The  Minor  Prophets.    (Men  of  the  Bible  Series.)  Randolph. 
The  Passion  Play  at  Oberammergau.    J.  W.  Lovell. 
Truths  to  Live  By :   a  Companion  to  Everyday  Christian  Life. 
Whittaker. 

Wider  Hope  :  Essays  and  Strictures  on  the  Doctrine  and  Literature 
of  Future  Punishment.  Dutton. 

1891 

Darkness  and  Dawn.  Longmans. 

Places  that  Our  Lord  Loved.  Prang. 

Social  and  Present-day  Questions.    Bradley  &  Co. 

1892 

The  Voice  from  Sinai :  the  Eternal  Bases  of  the  Moral  Law.  Whit- 
taker. 

In  the  Days  of  thy  Youth :  Sermons  preached  at  Marlborough  Col- 
lege. Macmillan. 

1893 

Eric ;  or,  Little  by  Little.  Macmillan. 

Non-Biblical  Systems  of  Religion:  a  Symposium.    Cranston  & 
Curtis. 

In  the  Field  with  their  Flocks  Abiding.    (Xmas  Carol.)  Whit- 
taker. 

Julian  Home :  a  Story  of  College  Life.  Macmillan. 
St.  Winifred's  :  a  Tale  of  School  Life.  Macmillan. 
The  First  Book  of  Kings.   (The  Expositor's  Bible.)    A.  C.  Arm- 
strong. 

The  Lord's  Prayer:   Sermons  preached  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
Whittaker. 


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xxi 


1894 

The  Cathedrals  of  England.  Whittaker. 

The  Second  Book  of  Kings.   (The  Expositor's  Bible.)   A.  C.  Arm- 
strong. 

The  Life  of  Christ  as  represented  in  Art.  Macmillan. 

1895 

The  Farrar  Year-book:   Selections  from  the  writings  of  F.  W. 

Farrar,  D.D.    Dutton  &  Co. 
Gathering  Clouds.  Longmans. 

My  Brother  and  I,  by  F.  W.  F.  and  others.  Hunt  and  Eaton. 
The  Book  of  Daniel.  (The  Expositor's  Bible.)  Armstrong. 
The  Life  of  Christ.    2  Vols.    Crowell  &  Co. 

Westminster  Abbey  and  the  Cathedrals  of  England.  Winston 
&  Co. 

1896 

Biblical  Character  Sketches,  by  F.  W.  F.  and  others.  Whittaker. 
The  Bible  and  the  Child,  by  F.  W.  F.  and  others.  Macmillan. 
The  Path  of  Duty :  Counsels  to  Young  Men.    Crowell  &  Co. 
The  Three  Homes :  a  Tale  for  Fathers  and  Sons.   Dutton  &  Co. 

1897 

Lectures  on  Ecclesiastical  History  delivered  in  Norwich  Cathedral. 

(St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Polycarp,  by  F.  W.  F.)  Whittaker. 
Men  I  Have  Known.    Crowell  &  Co. 
The  Bible :  its  Meaning  and  Supremacy.  Longmans. 
True  Manhood  :  Sermons.    W.  B.  Ketcham. 
Sin  and  its  Conquerors ;  or,  the  Conquest  of  Sin.    Fleming  H. 

Revell  Co. 

1898 

Allegories.  Longmans. 

Great  Books.    Crowell  &  Co. 

The  Life  Story  of  Aner:  an  Allegory.  Longmans. 

The  Herods.    E.  R.  Herrick.    Also  Whittaker. 

1899 

Texts  explained;  or,  Helps  to  understand  the  New  Testament. 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co. 


xxii 


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Westminster  Abbey  ;  with  a  chapter  on  the  Poets'  Corner  by  Dean 
Stanley.   Mansfield  &  Wessels. 

1900 

The  Life  of  Lives  :  Further  Studies  in  the  Life  of  Christ.  Dodd, 
Mead  &  Co. 

1901 

True  Religion :  Sermons.  Whittaker. 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


CHAPTER  I 

CHILDHOOD  AND  REMINISCENCES  OF  HIS  PARENTS 

Frederic  William  Farrar  was  born  in  the  Fort  of 
Bombay,  August  7,  183 1,  his  father,  the  Rev.  Charles 
Pinhorn  Farrar,  being  then  a  chaplain  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society.  It  has  been  observed  that  there  is 
a  certain  congruity  in  the  fact  that  one  whose  luxuriance 
of  imagination  and  diction  was  said  —  at  any  rate  by  his 
enemies  —  to  be  at  times  too  tropical,  should  have  been 
born  beneath  the  "larger  constellations  burning"  of 
the  gorgeous  East.  Few  traditions  are  extant  of  those 
early  years,  but  I  met  in  India  in  1900  an  aged  Mahratha 
Brahman  who  was  educated  and  taught  English  by  the 
Farrars  in  Nasik,  and  who  spoke  of  them  with  the 
utmost  affection :  and  about  thirty  years  ago  an  old 
Mahrathi  woman  was  living  who  had  been  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Farrars  at  Nasik,  and  who  said  to  a  lady 
missionary,  "  Ah !  you  tell  me  the  same  things  as 
Farrar  Mem  sahib."  This  old  woman  could  remember 
"  Freddy  Baba,"  and  spoke  of  him  as  "  a  great  case," 
i.e.  a  very  lively  child.  At  the  age  of  three,  Freddy 
Baba  was  sent  home  to  England  with  his  elder  brother 
Henry  and  placed  under  the  care  of  two  maiden  aunts, 
cultured  and  refined  ladies  who  lived  at  Aylesbury.  A 
few  memories  of  his  childhood  are  preserved  in  "  Eric," 


2  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


which  is  in  some  respects  autobiographical,  and  from 
which,  therefore,  some  quotations  may  be  introduced  to 
illustrate  this  period. 

"  Very  soon  he  forgot  all  about  India ;  it  only  hung 
like  a  distant  golden  haze  on  the  horizon  of  his  memory. 
When  asked  if  he  remembered  it  he  would  say,  thought- 
fully, that  in  dreams,  and  at  some  other  times,  he  saw 
a  little  boy,  with  long  curly  hair,  running  about  in  a 
flower-garden,  near  a  great  river,  in  a  place  where  the 
air  was  very  bright.  But  whether  the  little  boy  was 
himself  or  his  brother  Vernon,  whom  he  had  never 
seen,  he  couldn't  quite  tell." 

"  In  his  bedroom  there  hung  a  cherub's  head,  drawn 
in  pencil  by  his  mother,  and  this  winged  child  was 
inextricably  identified  in  his  imagination  with  his  '  little 
brother  Vernon.'  He  loved  it  dearly,  and  whenever  he 
went  astray,  nothing  weighed  on  his  mind  so  strongly 
as  the  thought,  that  if  he  were  naughty  he  would  teach 
little  Vernon  to  be  naughty  too,  when  he  came  home." 
His  "  little  brother  Vernon  "  was  an  imaginary  portrait, 
but  the  little  pencil  sketch  to  which  this  description 
refers  was  an  actual  possession  of  my  father's  childhood 
which  he  dearly  cherished,  and  looked  on  as,  in  some 
sort,  his  guardian  angel,  and  is  still  preserved. 

His  aunts,  one  of  whom  is  remembered  as  "  Aunt 
Rufella,"  and  the  training  which  he  received  at  their 
hands,  are  thus  described :  "  With  Mrs.  Trevor  and  her 
daughter,  religion  was  not  a  system,  but  a  habit  —  not 
a  theory,  but  a  continued  act  of  life.  All  was  simple, 
sweet,  and  unaffected  about  their  charity  and  their 
devotions.  They  loved  God  and  they  did  all  the  good 
they  could  to  those  around  them.  The  floating  gossip 
and  ill-nature  of  the  little  village  never  affected  them ; 
it  melted  away  insensibly  in  the  presence  of  their  culti- 


I 


CHILDHOOD  AND  REMINISCENCES  3 


vated  minds ;  so  that  friendship  with  them  was  a  bond 
of  union  among  all,  and,  from  the  vicar  to  the  dairy- 
man, every  one  loved  and  respected  them,  asked  their 
counsel,  and  sought  their  sympathy." 

"They  called  themselves  by  no  sectarian  name,  nor 
could  they  have  told  to  what  '  party '  they  belonged. 
They  troubled  themselves  with  no  theory  of  education, 
but  mingled  gentle  nurture  with  '  wholesome  neglect.' 
There  was  nothing  exotic  or  constrained  in  the  growth 
of  Eric's  character.  He  was  not  one  of  the  angelically 
good  children  at  all,  and  knew  none  of  the  phrases  of 
which  infant  prodigies  are  supposed  to  be  so  fond.  But 
to  be  truthful,  to  be  honest,  to  be  kind,  to  be  brave  — 
these  lessons  had  been  taught  him,  and  he  never  quite 
forgot  them ;  nor  amid  the  sorrows  of  after  life  did  he 
ever  quite  lose  the  sense  —  learned  at  dear,  quiet  Fair- 
holm  —  of  a  present  loving  God,  of  a  tender  and  long- 
suffering  Father." 

Thus  kindly  and  wisely  nurtured,  Fred  Farrar  passed 
a  happy  childhood,  a  little  fair-haired,  blue-eyed  fellow, 
roaming  about  the  garden  and  orchard  at  the  bottom  of 
which  ran  a  clear  stream,  and  which  supplied  him  a 
theatre  for  endless  games.  He  was  allowed  to  go 
about  a  good  deal  by  himself  and  it  did  him  good.  He 
grew  up  fearless  and  self-dependent  and  never  felt  the 
want  of  amusement. 

Having  been  rather  a  solitary  child,  he  developed  at 
a  very  early  age  a  voracious  appetite  for  books.  He 
had  the  good  fortune  to  be  born  and  to  develop  his 
literary  taste  before  the  modern  boom  in  cheap  and 
ephemeral  fiction,  before  the  flooding  of  the  market 
with  the  abysmal  futilities  of  the  modern  sixpenny 
magazine.  The  few  books  to  which  he  had  access, 
both  at  this  period  and  in  his  school  days  in  the  Isle 


4  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


of  Man  were  perforce  read  and  re-read  till  they  became- 
a  part  of  himself.  Thus  he  made  an  early  acquaintance 
with  Scott's  novels,  of  which,  as  with  all  boys,  "Ivanhoe" 
was  the  favourite,  and  the  characters  in  it  grew  to  be  as 
real  to  him  as  the  people  in  the  streets.  The  little 
volume  of  Milton  which  his  mother  gave  him  when  he 
was  quite  a  child,  and  which  was  his  constant  compan- 
ion till  the  day  of  his  death,  he  conned  so  intently  and 
so  often  that,  while  still  a  child,  he  knew  many  passages 
of  "  Paradise  Lost "  by  heart.  At  the  age  of  six  Fred 
Farrar  was  sent  to  the  Latin  school  at  Aylesbury.  Of 
this  school  he  thus  speaks  in  "  Eric  ":  "Although  he  learnt 
little  there,  and  gained  no  experience  of  the  character 
of  others  or  of  his  own,  there  was  one  point  about  Ayrton 
[Aylesbury]  Latin  School  which  he  never  regretted. 
It  was  the  mixture  there  of  all  classes.  On  those  benches 
gentlemen's  sons  sat  side  by  side  with  plebeians,  and  no 
harm,  but  only  good,  seemed  to  come  from  the  inter- 
course. The  neighbouring  gentry,  most  of  whom  had 
begun  their  education  there,  were  drawn  into  closer  and 
kindlier  union  with  their  neighbours  and  dependants, 
from  the  fact  of  having  been  their  associates  in  the  days 
of  their  boyhood.  Many  a  time  afterward  when  Eric, 
as  he  passed  down  the  streets,  interchanged  friendly 
greetings  with  some  young  glazier  or  tradesman  whom 
he  remembered  at  school,  he  felt  glad  that  thus  early  he 
had  learnt  to  despise  the  accidental  and  nominal  differ- 
ences which  separate  man  from  man." 

When  he  was  eight  years  old  his  parents  returned  from 
India  and  took  a  house  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  on  the  shores  of 
Castleton  Bay.  Here  for  three  years,  till  their  return  to 
India,  he  and  his  brother  Henry,  for  whom  he  had  a  very 
strong  affection,  lived  with  their  parents,  and  attended 
King  William's  College,  which  was  close  to  their  home. 

4 


CHILDHOOD  AND  REMINISCENCES  5 


With  his  father,  a  very  reticent  and  somewhat  austere 
man,  of  the  strictest  evangelical  opinions,  he  appears, 
partly  owing  to  absence  during  the  years  of  boyhood, 
never  to  have  been  on  really  intimate  terms.  For  the 
memory  of  his  mother,  a  saintly  woman,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Caroline  Turner,  he  cherished  the  deepest 
love  and  reverence.  In  1890,  when  he  was  nearly  sixty 
years  old,  he  thus  wrote  of  her:  — 

"  First  among  the  influences  which  have  formed  my 
life,  I  must  mention  the  character  of  a  mother  who  has 
been  dead  for  nearly  thirty  years,  but  of  whom  my  remi- 
niscences are  as  vivid  and  as  tender  as  if  she  had  passed 
away  but  yesterday.  I  have  never  spoken  of  her,  though 
I  dedicated  one  early  book  to  her  dear  memory.  She 
has  had  no  memorial  in  the  world ;  she  passed  her  life 
in  the  deep  valley  of  poverty,  obscurity,  and  trial ;  but 
she  has  left  to  her  only  surviving  son  the  recollections 
of  a  saint.  I  may  say  of  her  with  truth  that  she  was 
canonised  by  all  who  looked  on  her,  and  I  echo  with  all 
my  heart  the  words  of  the  Poet  Laureate  :  — 

"  Happy  he 
With  such  a  mother!  faith  in  womankind 
Beats  with  his  blood,  and  trust  in  all  things  high 
Comes  easy  to  him." 

In  another  passage  he  says  :  — 

"  My  mother's  habit  was,  every  day,  immediately  after 
breakfast,  to  withdraw  for  an  hour  to  her  own  room, 
and  to  spend  that  hour  in  reading  the  Bible,  in  medi- 
tation, and  in  prayer.  From  that  hour,  as  from  a  pure 
fountain,  she  drew  the  strength  and  sweetness  which 
enabled  her  to  fulfil  all  her  duties,  and  to  remain  un- 
ruffled by  all  the  worries  and  pettinesses  which  are  so 
often  the  intolerable  trial  of  narrow  neighbourhoods. 


6  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


As  I  think  of  her  life,  and  of  all  it  had  to  bear,  I  see  the 
absolute  triumph  of  Christian  grace  in  the  lovely  ideal 
of  a  Christian  lady.  I  never  saw  her  temper  disturbed ; 
I  never  heard  her  speak  one  word  of  anger,  or  of  cal- 
umny, or  of  idle  gossip.  I  never  observed  in  her  any 
sign  of  a  single  sentiment  unbecoming  to  a  soul  which 
had  drunk  of  the  river  of  the  water  of  life,  and  which 
had  fed  upon  manna  in  the  barren  wilderness." 

He  preserved  her  last  letter  in  an  envelope,  on  the 
back  of  which  he  wrote,  "Sacred  to  the  most  dear 
memory  of  the  best  of  mothers.  The  enclosed  was 
the  last  letter  she  ever  wrote  —  Farewell,  darling 
mother,  till  the  Resurrection  morning,  when  God  shall 
bring  with  Him  them  that  sleep  in  Jesus." 

A  letter  written  to  one  of  his  Harrow  pupils,  a  letter 
which  influenced  the  boy's  whole  life,  and  which  he 
carefully  preserved  "  among  his  most  sacred  1  arcana '  " 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  may  be  inserted  here. 

"  My  dear  :  My  esteem  and  regard  for  you,  ever 

since  I  knew  you,  have  been  so  sincere,  and  I  have  so 
firm  a  belief  in  the  manliness  and  Christian  principle 
which  mark  your  character,  that  I  feel  sure  you  will 
allow  me  the  privilege  of  a  friend  and  master,  if  I  speak 
to  you  about  one  very  sacred  and  solemn  duty  —  your 
bearing  at  home.  I  should  never  think  of  intruding 
into  so  delicate  a  matter,  if  one  who  loves  you  had  not 
asked  me  affectionately  to  let  you  know  that  sometimes 
by  a  little  impatience  about  advice  you  are  led  to  use 
expressions  which  wound  and  cause  pain  to  those  whom 
I  know  that  you  would  wish  in  your  inmost  heart  to 
shelter  from  the  least  breath  of  sorrow  at  any  cost  of 
your  own  personal  suffering.  The  chief  duty  of  a 
Christian  lies,  my  dear  boy,  in  the  quiet,  unseen  life  of 


CHILDHOOD  AND  REMINISCENCES  7 


his  own  home,  and  if  he  does  not  learn  there  to  practise 
that  noble  virtue  of  unselfishness  —  that  highest  type  of 
charity  —  which  consists  in  daily  and  hourly  consider- 
ateness  for  the  feelings  of  others,  he  will  have  lost  one 
of  the  strongest  resources  and  one  of  the  most  healing 
memories  for  all  his  future  life. 

"  As  life  goes  on  you  will  realise  with  more  and  more 
intensity  the  fact  that  true,  pure,  devoted  friendship  — 
and  still  more  that  genuine  love  —  is  a  thing  which  we 
very,  very  seldom  obtain  in  life.  As  we  grow  older  we 
more  and  more  walk  alone,  and  our  path  is  marked  by 
the  graves  of  those  who  were  more  to  us  than  others  can 
ever  be.  It  is  then,  I  think,  that  we  yearn  most  strongly 
for  the  sacred  affection  of  mother  or  sister  or  kinsman 
whom  we  have  lost.  It  is  now  eight  years  since  my 
own  mother  died.  She  was,  if  ever  there  was,  a  saint  of 
God.  Her  love  to  me  was  more  than  almost  any  love 
can  ever  be,  and  I  loved  her  with  all  my  heart.  And 
yet  one  morning,  as  I  sat  in  school,  a  letter  brought  me 
the  intelligence  that  the  previous  night  she  had  gone 
to  bed  in  perfect  health  and  happiness,  and  yet  before 
morning  God  had  called  her  to  Himself.  When  this 
news  was  brought  to  me,  my  first  thought  was  how  much 
kinder,  how  much  more  loving  I  might  have  been ; 
how  in  a  thousand  ways,  by  word  and  deed,  which 
would  have  cost  me  nothing  and  which  would  have 
caused  a  thrill  of  happiness,  I  might  have  brightened 
and  beautified  her  earthly  life.  It  was  a  bitter  thought 
that,  much  as  I  loved  her,  /  had  not  always  been  as  kind 
to  her  as  I  might  have  been,  and  I  looked  back  with  joy 
only  to  those  occasions  when  I  had  not  treated  her  love 
for  me  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  had  shown  by  acts  of 
kindness  and  gentleness  how  infinitely  I  valued  her 
blessing  and  her  prayers.    Little  faults  of  impatience, 


8  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


little  haughtinesses  in  the  expression  of  opinion  and  the 
rejection  of  advice,  then  seemed  to  me  almost  like  crimes, 
and  I  longed,  too  late,  for  the  opportunity  which  could 

never  more  return.    That  you,  my  dear  ,  may  be 

spared  from  all  such  painful  retrospects,  that  you  may 
live  worthily  of  your  high  Christian  calling,  and  that 
these  few  words  of  a  sincere  friend  may  not  offend  you 
but  rather  help  to  save  you  from  vain  regrets  is  the 
earnest  hope  of,  yours  affectionately, 

"  Frederic  W.  Farrar." 

And  two  letters  referring  to  his  parents  in  India  will 
not  perhaps  be  out  of  place. 

"Bombay,  November  i,  1875. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir  :  I  have  met  lately  with 
several  Europeans  who  have  read  your  very  valuable 
work,  the  '  Life  of  Christ.'  I  regret  very  much  that  its 
price  places  it  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  the  English 
speaking  natives  of  India,  Christian  and  non-Christian. 

"  Allow  me  to  suggest  that  if  a  cheap  edition  were  pub- 
lished, there  would  be  a  considerable  demand  for  it  in 
this  country,  and  your  object  in  writing  the  book  would, 
as  far  as  India  is  concerned,  be  to  a  certain  extent 
realised. 

"Your  venerable  father,  the  Rev.  C.  P.  Farrar,  was 
the  means  of  my  conversion,  he  baptized  me  in  Nasik  in 
1845.  The  labours  of  both  Mr.  and  the  1st  Mrs.  Farrar 
are  still  remembered  by  many  Hindu  people  at  Nasik 
and  its  vicinity,  and  many  would  have  rejoiced  at  their 
return  to  India.  Why  should  not  you  visit  the  land  of 
your  birth  and  benefit  the  people  of  it  by  your  vast 
learning.    'Come  over  and  help  us,'  Acts  xvi.  10. 

9|f  ^  #  tifc  ^ 


CHILDHOOD  AND  REMINISCENCES  9 


"  Will  you  kindly  give  my  best  regards  to  your  father, 
and  accept  the  same  yourself. 

"  I  am,  Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Yours  faithfully, 

"Appaji  Bapuji,  C.  M.  Society." 

"  September  14. 

"  Dear  Sir  : 

ifr  ■jjf  ^(6"  ffc  ^ 

"  I  had  enjoyed  in  India,  so  far  as  an  unlearned  man 
may  enjoy,  your  Hulsean  Lectures,  and  you  will  not 
wonder  at  my  especial  interest  in  the  works  and  career 
of  Dr.  Frederic  Farrar  when  I  tell  you  that  from  1843 
to  1846  I  was  constantly  hearing  of  their  son  Frederic's 
promise  from  your  father  and  mother,  whom  in  those 
years  I  knew  so  well  at  Nasik  in  India.  I  often  fancy 
that  those  who  leave  us  are  watching  us  with  intense 
interest,  and  as  I  read  your  work  yesterday  evening,  I 
thought  to  myself,  if  the  indications  of  genius  in  her 
boy  gave  your  sainted  mother  such  pleasure,  what  joy 
to  find  the  great  truths  for  which  she  laboured  and  lived 
thus  put  before  the  world  by  yourself. 

"  I  never  met  a  lady  in  India  whose  work  in  every  re- 
spect I  honoured  as  much  as  Mrs.  Farrar's.  .  .  . 

"  I  remain,  dear  Sir, 

"Yours  faithfully, 

"H.  D." 


THE  SCHOOLBOY 


1 1 


that  we  looked  '  depressed  and  emaciated,'  interfered 
on  our  behalf,  and  robbed  the  bishop  of  the  luxury  of 
gauging  our  very  shallow  attainments. 

"  I  remember  that  the  first  time  I  entered  his  study 
I  saw  on  the  chimneypiece  a  picture  of  my  celebrated 
ancestor,  the  Marian  martyr  —  Farrar,  Bishop  of  St. 
David's,  who  was  burnt  alive  at  Carmarthen  in  1555. 
The  bishop  told  me  that  he  was  thinking  of  writing  a 
sketch  of  his  predecessors  in  the  ancient  see  of  Sodor 
and  Man,  and  that  Bishop  Farrar  was  one  of  them.  I 
have  since  learnt  that  this  was  a  mistake.  Bishop  Farrar 
was  one  of  Archbishop  Cranmer's  chaplains,  and  was 
appointed  Bishop  of  St.  David's  by  Edward  VI.  There 
is  not  only  no  trace  of  his  having  set  foot  in  the  Isle  of 
Man,  but  no  trace  of  his  having  been  appointed  there. 
Perhaps  the  error  arose  from  his  sometimes  signing 
himself  R  Men.,  which  was  an  abbreviation  for  Mene- 
viensis,  or  1  of  the  see  of  St.  David's.' " 

That  those  were  happy  years  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  under  a  coloured  print  of  his  old  school 
he  has  written  the  lines  from  Coleridge. 

Ah !  dear  delights,  that  o'er  my  Soul 
On  Memory's  wing  like  shadows  fly! 

Ah !  flowers  that  Joy  from  Eden  stole, 
While  Innocence  stood  laughing  by. 

Rough  as  was  the  school,  in  some  respects,  and  poor 
as  was  the  teaching,  he  encountered  there  many  of  the 
influences  that  fundamentally  moulded  his  character. 

First  among  these  must  be  named  the  rugged  and 
beautiful  scenery  of  the  island,  unspoiled  as  yet  by 
"trippers,"  where  the  mail  came  but  once  a  week  in 
winter,  and  the  people  generally  spoke  Manx. 

In  "  Eric  "  he  thus  describes  the  first  impressions  made 


12  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


upon  him  by  his  new  home :  "  Not  twenty  yards  below 
the  garden,  in  front  of  the  house,  lay  Elian  [Castleton] 
Bay,  at  that  moment  rippling  with  golden  laughter  in 
the  fresh  breeze  of  sunrise.  On  either  side  of  the  bay 
was  a  bold  headland,  the  one  stretching  out  in  a  series 
of  broken  crags,  the  other  terminating  in  a  huge  mass 
of  rock,  called,  from  its  shape,  The  Stack.  To  the  right 
lay  the  town,  with  its  gray  old  castle  and  the  mountain 
stream  running  through  it  into  the  sea;  to  the  left,  high 
above  the  beach,  rose  the  crumbling  fragment  of  a 
picturesque  fort,  behind  which  towered  the  lofty  build- 
ings of  Roslyn  School.  Eric  learnt  the  whole  land- 
scape by  heart,  and  thought  himself  a  most  happy  boy 
to  come  to  such  a  place.  He  fancied  that  he  should 
never  be  tired  of  looking  at  the  sea,  and  could  not  take 
his  eyes  off  the  great  buoy  that  rolled  about  in  the  centre 
of  the  bay,  and  flashed  in  the  sunlight  at  every  move." 

Sojourning  in  this  beautiful  island  my  father  acquired 
that  abiding  love  of  natural  scenery,  which,  to  the  end 
of  his  life,  remained  the  pure  source  of  his  keenest 
pleasures.  He  never  failed  to  spend  his  annual  holiday 
by  the  seaside,  and  to  the  last,  the  year  held  for  him  no 
happier  hours  than  those  he  spent  pacing  the  yellow 
sands,  with  his  children  at  his  side,  drinking  in  the  sea 
breezes,  and  holding  his  Panama  hat  in  his  hand,  to  let 
them  gently  ruffle  his  fine  hair,  to  blow,  as  he  expressed 
it,  the  cobwebs  from  his  brain. 

Such  games  as  were  played  in  his  school  days 
were  spontaneous,  and  athletics  had  not  attained  the 
compulsory,  and  perhaps  excessive  organisation  with 
which  we  are  now  familiar,  and  which  absorbs  the  whole 
energies  of  boys  out  of  school  hours,  leaving  them  but 
little  leisure  or  inclination  for  country  rambles.  He 
was  never  a  cricketer,  but  was  fond  of  fives  and  of  foot- 


THE  SCHOOLBOY 


13 


ball,  which  he  continued  to  play  as  a  Harrow  master. 
He  was,  and  remained  till  late  in  life,  a  fine  swimmer, 
and  as  a  boy  loved  to  swim  "  far  into  the  bay,  even  as 
far  as  the  huge,  tumbling  red  buoy  that  spent  its  restless 
life  in  '  ever  climbing  with  the  climbing  wave  ' ;  "  but  he 
was  a  tireless  and  athletic  walker,  and  his  chief  delight 
was  in  long  rambles  and  climbs  among  the  mountains 
and  along  the  coast  scenery  for  which  the  Isle  of  Man 
is  famous,  and  here,  while  yet  a  boy,  God  spoke  to  him 
in  the  voices  of  the  mountain  and  the  sea,  and  loving 
nature,  he  learnt  to  love  nature's  God. 

His  voracious  appetite  for  books  was  perhaps  an 
innate  quality,  but  the  circumstances  of  his  school 
days  did  much,  by  their  very  limitations,  to  develop 
his  literary  taste.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  loved  the 
occasional  relaxation  of  a  good  novel,  but  the  boon,  or, 
shall  we  say  the  blight,  of  cheap  literature  had  not  yet 
descended  upon  the  land,  and  the  schoolboy  of  those 
days  was  at  least  saved,  in  spite  of  himself,  from  be- 
coming the  debauchee  of  shoddy  fiction.  Even  such 
standard  novels  as  those  of  Scott,  Fenimore  Cooper, 
and  Captain  Marryat,  which,  fortunately,  were  almost 
the  only  romances  then  available,  circulated  almost  by 
stealth.  They  were  eagerly  devoured,  and  he  relates 
how  the  boys  used  to  lie  awake  at  night  hotly  discussing 
their  favourite  characters  in  these  novels.  The  teaching 
of  the  school  was  poor  in  many  respects,  poor,  especially, 
as  regards  the  niceties  of  classical  scholarship,  but  one 
wise  custom  prevailed  for  which  in  after  years  he  was 
always  deeply  thankful.  This  was  the  practice  of  set- 
ting passages  of  English  poetry  to  be  learnt  by  heart. 
In  the  course  of  these  exercises  he  committed  to  memory 
long  passages  of  Byron,  Goldsmith,  Moore,  Scott,  Shelley, 
Wordsworth,  and  other  poets.   A  memory  naturally  reten- 


14  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


tive  was  thus  developed  to  a  phenomenal  degree,  and  the 
foundation  was  laid  of  a  knowledge  of  English  poetry, 
that  for  range  and  accuracy  has  probably  never  been 
equalled  except,  it  may  be,  by  Lord  Macaulay.  In  his 
Marlborough  days  it  was  a  tradition  in  the  Common 
Room  that  it  was  impossible  to  "stump"  the  master 
with  any  known  passage  from  the  English  poets.  In 
respect  of  prose,  mere  dearth  of  books  to  stay  his  vora- 
cious appetite  drove  him  back  upon  his  school  prizes ; 
thus,  before  he  was  sixteen  he  had  read  such  works  as 
Hooker's  "Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  Prideaux's  "Connec- 
tion between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,"  and  Cole- 
ridge's "  Aids  to  Reflection,"  solid  fare,  which  the  modern 
schoolboy  would,  it  is  to  be  feared,  be  apt  to  regard  as 
"  stodgy."  Some  stress  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
absence  of  organised  school  games  conferred  an  immu- 
nity from  that  atmosphere  of  athletic  "shop"  which  is 
to  the  modern  public-school  boy  as  the  breath  of  his 
nostrils.  The  young  cynic  of  to-day  derides  the  boys 
of  Eric  and  St.  Winifred's,  who  are  represented  as 
eagerly  discussing  out  of  school  the  characters  of  Ho- 
meric heroes ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  more  intel- 
ligent boys  of  that  epoch,  being  precluded  from  such 
lofty  themes  as  cricket  averages,  or  the  prospects  of 
Surrey  v.  Yorks,  did  find  interest  in  discussing  the 
"  shop "  of  their  school  classics,  regarded  as  human 
literature. 

Among  the  influences  of  his  school  days,  which  de- 
cisively moulded  his  character,  must  be  mentioned  a 
sermon  which  he  heard  preached  from  the  text,  "  Let 
them  be  as  the  grass  growing  upon  the  housetops,  which 
withereth  before  it  groweth  up  ;  wherewith  the  mower 
filleth  not  his  hand,  nor  he  that  bindeth  sheaves  his 
bosom."    This  image  of  barren  grass  upon  the  house- 


THE  SCHOOLBOY 


i5 


top,  presented  in  vivid  language,  as  the  symbol  of  an 
idle  and  useless  life,  powerfully  stimulated  his  imagi- 
nation, and  caused  him  to  register  a  vow  that,  God  help- 
ing him,  that  reproach  should  never  be  his.  This  text 
and  its  lesson  are  recorded  in  connection  with  the  char- 
acter of  Daubeny  in  "  St.  Winifred's."  Few  definite 
incidents  of  his  life  at  King  William's  College  have  been 
preserved,  though  his  memories  of  that  school  have  con- 
tributed much  to  the  local  colour  of  "  Eric  "  and  "  St. 
Winifred's."  One  of  the  few  recorded  refers  to  the  fire, 
in  1844,  by  which  the  school  buildings  were  destroyed. 
Fred  Farrar  was  one  of  the  first  to  give  the  alarm.  "  I 
shall  never  forget,"  he  says,  "waking  up  at  night  with 
the  suffocating  smell  of  smoke,  and,  when  I  opened  the 
door  at  one  end  of  the  long  dormitories,  being  met  by 
the  bursting  flames.  I  roused  my  brother,  and  we  ran 
together  from  bed  to  bed,  waking  up  the  boys.  Then 
came  the  fearful  suspense,  while  we  all  stood  huddled 
together  in  a  dark  passage,  waiting  for  the  key  to  be 
found  for  the  only  safe  door  of  exit ;  and  the  joy  when 
it  was  at  length  opened,  and  we  rushed  pell-mell  out 
of  doors,  barefooted,  and  with  scarcely  anything  on  but 
our  nightshirts.  It  was  a  December  night,  and  the 
cold  was  intense ;  but  the  wonderful  sight  of  the  flames 
issuing  from  the  windows  made  me  forget  everything 
else.  It  was  the  grandest  and  most  awful  sight  I  ever 
witnessed.  Fortunately  my  brother  and  I  had  friends 
to  take  us  in;  and  afterwards  we  were  placed,  along 
with  other  boys,  in  a  house,  until  the  college  was  re- 
built, and  trusted  entirely  by  ourselves,  without  a  master 
being  placed  in  charge."  The  boys'  scanty  wardrobes 
were  destroyed  by  this  fire,  and  they  had  to  borrow 
clothes  from  friends.  Among  his  schoolfellows  were 
the  Rev.  T.  R.  Brown,  author  of  "  Fo'c'sle  Yarns,"  and 


16  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

Professor  E.  Spencer  Beesly,  who  was  for  a  year  his 
study-mate,  and  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  follow- 
ing contribution. 

Professor  Beesly  s  Narrative 

When  I  went  to  King  William's  College  after  the  sum- 
mer vacation  of  1 846,  Farrar  and  I  were  both  fifteen,  he 
being  a  few  months  my  junior.  He  had  been  there  for 
several  years,  and  had  just  reached  the  highest  form.  I 
was  placed  in  the  same  form,  and  we  shared  the  same 
study.  We  at  once  became  great  friends.  I  had  been 
taught  entirely  by  my  father,  and  had  read,  in  a  loose, 
slovenly  way,  a  great  deal  more  Latin  and  Greek  than 
Farrar  had ;  but  he  was  the  more  accurate  scholar,  and 
he  always  beat  me  in  examinations.  Our  study  was  a 
tiny  room  high  up  in  the  tower,  just  big  enough  to  hold 
our  two  chairs,  a  table,  and  a  wooden  coal  box  of  cu- 
bical shape  with  a  cover,  which  furnished  a  third  seat. 
The  table  must  have  been  a  very  small  one,  for  I  re- 
member that  our  two  writing-desks,  when  opened,  com- 
pletely covered  it.  The  room  was  lofty,  relatively  to  its 
other  dimensions,  and  in  winter  very  cold.  Our  coal 
box  was  filled  up  once  a  week,  and  its  capacity  was  not 
great,  for  one  of  us  used  to  carry  it  up  to  the  study. 
We  could,  therefore,  not  afford  to  have  even  the  smallest 
fire,  except  in  the  evening  ;  and  very  cold  we  often  were 
as  we  sat  at  our  work.  Everything  was  on  the  same 
Spartan  scale.  For  breakfast  and  tea  we  had  thick 
pieces  of  buttered  bread :  for  dinner  one  very  scanty 
helping  of  meat,  with  boiled  rice  or  swedes  instead  of 
bread  or  potatoes.  Bread  was  very  dear  that  winter, 
and  the  potato  crop  had  perished.  On  Sundays  there 
was  pudding,  and  on  Thursdays  treacle  roll;  on  other 
days  no  second  course.    My  recollection  of  those  din- 


THE  SCHOOLBOY 


17 


ners  is  vivid.  I  used  to  rise  from  them  almost  as  hun- 
gry as  when  I  sat  down.  Silence  was  strictly  enforced. 
If  a  boy  was  observed  whispering  to  his  neighbour  he 
was  "stood  out,"  and  lost  the  remainder  of  his  meal. 

I  do  not  know  that  we  had  any  claim  to  a  more 
liberal  dietary.  The  charge  for  our  board  and  educa- 
tion was  very  low,  and  I  dare  say  the  margin  of  profit 
was  small  enough.  I  do  not  remember  that  there  was 
any  illness  while  I  was  there.  The  situation  was  a  very 
healthy  one  on  the  seashore,  and  the  schoolrooms  and 
dormitories  were  airy  and  not  overcrowded.  There 
were  four  boarding-houses.  Ours  occupied  a  wing  of 
the  college,  and  consisted,  I  think,  of  about  forty  boys. 

The  classical  teaching  was  poor,  the  mathematical  — 
a  subject  in  which  my  education  had  been  entirely 
neglected  —  was,  I  believe,  better.  ^Eschylus,  Demos- 
thenes, Virgil,  and  Tacitus  were  the  classical  subjects 
that  year  in  our  form.  Our  Greek  and  Latin  composi- 
tion did  not  go  beyond  Kerchever  Arnold's  books.  We 
were  made  to  write  English  verse  sometimes,  in  my 
opinion  a  most  useful  and  humanising  exercise  for 
schoolboys.  Farrar  shone  at  this ;  and  I,  and  others, 
caught  some  of  his  enthusiasm  for  poetry.  But  we 
were  almost  entirely  without  books,  and  we  had  access 
to  no  library.  A  few  well-thumbed  novels,  liable  to  con- 
fiscation, circulated  surreptitiously.  We  had  no  news- 
papers, and  knew  nothing  of  what  was  going  on  in  the 
world.  In  the  winter  there  was  postal  communication 
with  England  only  twice  a  week. 

The  religious  teaching,  of  which  we  had  a  good  deal, 
was  of  the  narrowest  evangelical  type.  It  was  for  that 
reason  that  Farrar  and  I  and  many  other  boys  had  been 
sent  there.  But  none  of  the  masters  had  any  religious 
influence  that  I  know  of.     The  moral  tone,  at  the 


« 


18  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


beginning  of  my  time,  was  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
in  most  schools  ;  but  in  the  course  of  the  year  it  was 
much  injured  by  some  new  arrivals.  Perhaps  this 
deterioration  was  confined  to  our  house ;  I  remember 
little  or  nothing  about  the  others.  Farrar's  influence 
was  always  exercised  on  the  side  of  all  that  was  honour- 
able, high-minded,  humane,  and  refined.  He  was  already 
as  a  boy  what  he  was  afterwards  as  a  schoolmaster, 
a  "  preacher  of  righteousness,"  and  not  a  preacher 
only,  but  a  shining  example  and  a  support  to  all  who 
were  well  inclined.  Having  never  left  my  home  till  I 
went  to  King  William's  College,  I  was  quite  unprepared 
for  the  difficulties,  dangers,  and  temptations  of  school- 
life,  and  I  had  great  reason  to  be  thankful  that  I  was 
from  the  first  thrown  into  close  intimacy  with  so  valu- 
able a  friend. 

In  a  well-organised  school,  where  his  remarkable 
ability  and  untiring  industry  would  have  procured  for 
him  monitorial  authority,  Farrar,  who  had  plenty  of 
pluck,  would  have  had  the  means  of  repressing  and 
punishing  evil-doers.  But  there  was  no  such  organisa- 
tion at  King  William's  College.  The  law  of  the  strong- 
est prevailed,  and  there  were  many  older  and  stronger 
than  Farrar.  But  his  approbation  and  friendship  were 
valued  by  the  better  sort,  and  many,  no  doubt,  were 
kept  straight  by  unwillingness  to  lose  his  esteem. 

Games  were  not  cultivated  in  any  systematic  way. 
Cricket  was  as  primitive  and  unconventional  as  upon  a 
village  green.  There  was  no  regular  eleven.  Foot- 
ball was  pursued  with  vigour,  but  with  no  particular 
rules.  I  do  not  remember  that  Farrar  played  cricket, 
but  he  was  fond  of  foot-ball  and  fives. 

I  left  King  William's  College  at  midsummer  1847. 
Farrar  had  to  return  there  after  the  vacation.    He  wrote 


THE  SCHOOLBOY 


19 


to  me  very  despondently.  The  examination  at  mid- 
summer had  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  school. 
There  were  no  more  honours  for  him  to  gain.  He  had 
learnt  all  that  any  one  there  could  teach  him.  It  was 
a  dreary  outlook  for  an  ardent  young  fellow  conscious 
of  his  own  ability  and  thirsting  for  better  instruction. 
But  before  the  end  of  the  year  his  prospects  brightened. 
His  parents  returned  from  India.  His  father  became 
the  incumbent  of  a  parish  in  the  north  of  London,  and 
Farrar,  living  at  home,  pursued  his  studies  at  King's 
College.  I  was  with  a  private  tutor  at  Brixton,  so  we 
saw  one  another  from  time  to  time.  During  1850-185 3, 
while  he  was  at  Cambridge  and  I  at  Oxford,  we  did  not 
meet,  but  we  kept  up  a  correspondence.  In  1854  we 
were  again  thrown  together  as  assistant  masters  at 
Marlborough. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  paint  my  old 
school  in  more  favourable  colours.  My  friendship  with 
Farrar  is  the  only  pleasant  recollection  that  I  have  of 
it.    I  believe  it  is  now  an  excellent  school." 

As  I  muse  upon  these  years,  extremely  uneventful, 
yet  of  interest  in  virtue  of  their  formative  influence  upon 
the  character  of  one  who  was  destined  to  turn  many  to 
righteousness,  I  conjure  up  the  picture  of  a  happy  and 
healthy  schoolboy,  of  a  bright  and  open  countenance, 
with  eager,  well-opened  eyes,  clear-cut  features,  and  fine 
waving  hair ;  gay  and  playful,  yet  tremendously  in 
earnest ;  joining  heartily  in  games,  fond  of  bathing  and 
swimming,  but  fondest  of  long  rambles  and  scrambles 
along  the  cliffs  or  over  the  mountains,  with  his  ear  at- 
tuned to  the  voice  of  nature  ;  remarkably  well  read  for 
a  schoolboy,  and  with  his  memory  stored  with  treasures 
gathered  from  the  best  English  poets ;  a  good  scholar, 


20 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


in  spite  of  the  deficiencies  of  his  training,  who,  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  stood  at  the  head  of  his  school,  and  had 
won  all  the  prizes  it  had  to  offer,  and  who  had  laid 
already  the  foundation  of  that  habit  of  unflinching,  un- 
remitting industry  which  was  one  of  the  chief  secrets  of 
his  success  in  life ;  a  boy  whose  moral  influence  was 
always  strenuously  exerted  on  the  side  of  all  that  is 
manly  and  honest ;  beyond  all,  a  boy  of  stainless  and 
virginal  purity,  who  took  for  his  motto  the  text  "  keep 
innocency  and  do  the  thing  that  is  right,  for  that  shall 
bring  a  man  peace  at  the  last." 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  STUDENT 

Frederic  Farrar  was  entered  as  a  student  at  King's 
College  toward  the  end  of  1847.  His  father,  who  had 
finally  left  India,  had  obtained  the  curacy  in  charge  of 
St.  James,  Clerkenwell,  and  so  for  three  years  "  Fred  " 
lived  at  home  and  enjoyed  the  precious  privilege  of 
daily  intercourse  with  his  saintly  mother. 

These  were  indeed  strenuous  years,  of  intense  and  in- 
cessant application,  during  which  he  appears  to  have 
taken  for  his  model  the  youthful  Milton. 

When  I  was  yet  a  child  no  childish  play 
To  me  was  pleasing,  all  my  life  was  spent 
Serious  to  learn  and  know,  and  thence  to  do 
What  might  be  public  good  ;  myself  I  thought 
Born  to  that  end,  born  to  promote  all  truth, 
All  righteous  things  ;  therefore,  above  my  years, 
The  law  of  God  I  read,  and  found  it  sweet, 
Made  it  my  whole  delight  — 

These  lines  from  "  Paradise  Regained  "  are  inscribed 
under  a  portrait  of  Milton  as  a  boy,  which  for  years 
hung  in  my  father's  dressing-room.  The  influence  of 
Milton  on  his  character,  his  thoughts,  and  his  style  was 
one  of  the  determining  factors  of  his  life,  and  was  exer- 
cised especially  in  his  King's  College  days.  His  old 
College  Reports  are  still  preserved  and  testify  to  his 
diligence  and  progress  at  this  period. 

21 


22  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"King's  College,  1848. 

Frederic  William  Farrar 

Divinity   ....       First  prizeman  of  his  year.    Most  satis- 
factory. —  Edward  H.  Plumptre. 
Classics    .    .    .    .       Very  satisfactory. 

English  Literature       Highly  satisfactory,  prizeman  of  his  year.  — 
F.  D.  Maurice. 


1849 

Divinity  ....      Most  satisfactory  (as  usual).  —  R.  W.  J  elf. 
English  Literature      Very  satisfactory,  Stephen's  prizeman. — 
F.  D.  Maurice." 


In  addition  to  a  classical  and  theological  scholarship 
at  King's  College,  he  gained  a  London  University- 
scholarship,  and  thus  relieved  his  parents  from  the 
burden  of  any  expense  for  his  education.  He  was 
placed  first  in  the  examinations  both  for  matriculation 
and  for  honours,  and  graduated  B.A.,  London,  in  1852. 
In  1858  he  was  appointed  an  Honorary  Fellow  of 
King's  College.  One  of  his  chief  pleasures  was  to  go 
about  on  Sundays  with  his  brother  Henry  to  hear 
celebrated  preachers.  In  this  manner  he  heard  Bishop 
Wilberforce,  Canon  Melville,  Canon  Dale,  Dean  Close, 
and  all  the  foremost  preachers  of  that  day.  At  this 
time  he  was  also  a  regular  Sunday  School  teacher. 

Of  his  teachers,  those  to  whom  he  owed  most  were 
the  great  F.  D.  Maurice,  and  Dr.  Plumptre,  afterwards 
Dean  of  Wells,  with  whom  he  maintained  a  lifelong 
friendship,  and  of  whom  he  says,  "  I  count  his  friendship 
among  the  conspicuous  blessings,  and  his  teachings 
among  the  formative  influences  of  my  life."  In  "  Men 
I  have  Known,"  he  says,  "  Dean  Plumptre  of  Wells  was 
a  lifelong  friend  to  me,  since  the  days  when  I  was  a 


THE  STUDENT 


23 


boy  at  King's  College.  He  weekly  looked  over  my 
papers  in  answer  to  questions  on  his  Lectures,  and  he 
gave  me  excellent  advice  and  useful  encouragement, 
together  with  the  blessing  of  his  unfailing  regard  and 
kindness.  I  was  very  diffident  about  myself,  and  I 
might  almost  say  of  Dean  Plumptre,  as  Jeremy  Bentham 
said  of  Lord  Lansdowne,  '  He  raised  me  from  the  bot- 
tomless pit  of  humiliation ;  he  first  taught  me  that  I 
could  be  something'  —  however  small." 

The  influence  of  Maurice  upon  his  life  may  be 
described  in  his  own  words. 

"  I  first  learnt  to  know,  to  honour,  and  to  love  F.  D. 
Maurice  when,  as  a  boy  of  sixteen,  I  went  to  King's 
College,  London.  He  was  then  Professor  of  History 
and  Literature,  and  lectured  to  us  twice  a  week.  We 
were  supposed  to  take  notes  of  his  lectures,  and  were 
examined  on  the  subjects  of  them  at  the  end  of  the 
term.  I  never  learnt  shorthand ;  but  the  desire  to 
profit  by  the  lecture  system,  which  was  the  main  method 
of  teaching  at  King's  College,  made  me  so  far  a  '  tachy- 
graph  '  that  I  could  with  ease  take  down  everything 
that  was  essential  in  the  lectures  of  Professor  Brewer, 
Professor  Maurice,  and  Dr.  Jelf.  Maurice's  lectures 
were  '  caviare  to  the  general.'  Many  of  the  '  stu- 
dents,' as  we  were  called,  cared  nothing  for  them,  and 
were  much  more  impressed  by  the  lectures  of  his  assist- 
ant, which  were  full  of  facts.  But  those  of  us  who  had 
any  sense  of  reverence,  or  any  insight  into  genius  and 
character,  felt  that  we  were  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
and  noble  man,  and  were  proud  to  be  under  his  instruc- 
tion. His  lectures  were  meant  to  deal  rather  with  the 
meaning  and  philosophy  of  history  than  with  those 
details  which  he  rightly  supposed  we  could  derive  from 
any  ordinary  hand-book.    Certainly  his  lectures  were  a 


24  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


strong  intellectual  stimulus  to  those  of  us  who  were  at 
all  capable  of  rightly  apprehending  them. 

"  The  classes  were  attended  by  some  ninety  or  a  hun- 
dred students,  whom  it  was  the  custom  of  the  place  to 
regard  and  treat  as  '  University  Men,'  though  so  many 
of  us  were  but  boys.  Every  one  was  addressed  as  '  Mr' ; 
and  as  we  were  all  living  at  our  respective  homes,  only 
those  of  us  who  formed  friendships  among  ourselves 
knew  anything  about  each  other.  A  certain  number 
were  of  course  the  merest  Philistines,  who  neither 
understood  the  lectures  nor  cared  for  them  in  the  slight- 
est degree ;  and  some,  of  yet  coarser  grain,  had  not  the 
ordinary  manners  to  respect  the  lecturer  or  their  fellow- 
students.  These  youths  often  behaved  execrably. 
Maurice  did  not  know  most  of  them  even  by  name,  as 
he  only  saw  them  in  the  lecture  room ;  and  as  none  of 
the  ordinary  public-school  discipline  existed,  and  any 
punishment  short  of  expulsion  was  unknown,  he  had 
no  means  of  controlling  them.  That  power  of  disci- 
pline, which  many  seem  to  possess  as  a  natural  gift, 
was  not  his ;  and  as  we  '  students '  were  not  a  homo- 
geneous body  living  under  one  roof,  but  a  conglomer- 
ation of  separate  atoms  without  a  particle  of  authority 
over  each  other,  we  could  not  coerce  boors  into  a  better 
demeanour.  At  last,  however,  one  man  was  in  some 
way  identified,  and  Dr.  Jelf  brought  him  into  the  lecture 
room  and  made  him  apologize.  Even  this  was  not 
effectual.  On  one  occasion  things  came  to  a  climax. 
Some  brainless  youth  had  concealed  himself  under  the 
platform  on  which  the  seats  rose  tier  after  tier,  and  as 
the  lecture  proceeded,  he  emphasised  its  periods,  unseen, 
by  tapping  with  a  stick  on  the  floor,  giving  very  pro- 
nounced raps  when  there  was  any  sentence  peculiarly 


THE  STUDENT 


?5 


solemn  and  eloquent.  This  was  too  much  for  our 
equanimity.  I  never  knew  the  man's  name,  but  I  joined 
in  a  memorial  of  sympathy  to  Maurice,  in  which  we 
expressed  our  disgust  at  such  ill-bred  barbarism,  and 
offered  our  best  services  to  put  an  end  to  it  thereafter. 
From  this  time  the  disorder  ceased. 

"  At  that  time  I  was  intensely  interested  in  the  learning 
and  historic  research  of  the  four  portly  volumes  of  Elliot's 
'  Horae  Apocalypticae,'  of  which,  boy  as  I  was,  I  had  made 
a  complete  analysis.  I  asked  Maurice  what  he  thought 
of  it,  and  I  remember  the  sort  of  cold  shock  I  felt  when 
he  told  me  that  he  regarded  the  entire  system  of  inter- 
pretation as  utterly  baseless.  It  was  some  years  before 
further  study  brought  home  to  me  his  conviction,  that, 
though  the  book  of  Revelation  might,  like  those  of  all 
inspired  writers,  have  'springing  and  germinal  develop- 
ments,' it  was  primarily  'the  thundering  reverberation 
of  a  mighty  spirit  struck  by  the  plectrum '  of  the  Nero- 
nian  persecution. 

"  When  I  was  a  master  at  Harrow,  Professor  Maurice 
was  more  than  once  my  guest,  and  he  was  a  most  de- 
lightful one.  He  kindly  became  godfather  to  my  second 
son  —  the  Rev.  Eric  Maurice  Farrar  —  who  bears  his 
name.  I  was  seriously  taken  to  task,  and  almost  had  a 
quarrel  with  certain  excellent,  but  narrow-minded,  per- 
sons, for  inviting  him  to  address  the  members  of  the  in- 
stitute at  Harrow ;  but  I  stuck  to  my  point,  and  we  were 
rewarded  by  hearing  his  beautiful  lecture  on  'The 
Friendship  of  Books.' " 

F.  D.  Maurice  was  regarded  by  many  as  a  somewhat 
transcendental  philosopher,  and  was  humorously  charac- 
terised by  Matthew  Arnold  as  one  "  who  spent  his  life 


26  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


in  beating  about  the  bush  with  deep  emotion,  but  never 
starting  the  hare  "  ;  but  my  father  always  felt  that  he 
owed  a  deep  debt  to  his  teaching,  and  in  particular  it 
was  from  his  books  that  he  learnt  the  germ  of  those  con- 
victions to  which  he  gave  utterance  in  his  sermons  on 
"  Eternal  Hope." 

Dr.  Hayman,  of  Rugby,  who  was  my  father's  private 
tutor  at  King's  College,  thus  wrote  of  him  at  a  later 
date:  "A  more  interesting  pupil  I  certainly  never  have 
had,  nor  one  more  remarkable  for  rapid  acquisition, 
ready  insight,  and  careful  attention.  ...  I  have  found 
matured  in  the  man  the  same  purity  and  unselfish  gen- 
tleness which  were  conspicuous  in  the  boy,  and  I  have 
noticed  in  his  works  a  power  of  clothing  the  repulsive 
skeleton  of  a  dry  subject,  and  illuminating  the  dead  letter 
of  the  past  with  a  sympathetic  light  and  insight  of  his 
own." 

To  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  I  am  indebted  for  the  following 
generous  and  beautiful  appreciation  of  my  father  as  he 
appeared  in  those  days  to  a  friend  and  fellow-student :  — 

AT  KING'S  COLLEGE,  LONDON 

"  I  have  been  honoured  by  a  request  from  the  Editor  of 
this  Biography  that  I  should  furnish  him  with  some  brief 
notes  of  what  I  recollect  about  Dean  Farrar,  when  he 
was  a  fellow-student  of  mine  at  King's  College,  London. 

"  There  is  more  than  one  pen,  among  our  contempo- 
raries at  that  time,  which  could  better  discharge  this 
task ;  but  none  that  would  undertake  it  with  livelier  and 
more  admiring  —  nay,  I  must  frankly  say,  with  more 
affectionate  —  memories  than  the  present  writer.  My 
impressions  of  the  Dean,  then  for  the  first  time  formed, 
were  from  the  beginning  instinctively  of  a  friendly 


THE  STUDENT 


27 


character,  so  impossible  was  it  not  to  be  interested  and 
attracted  by  the  tall,  quiet,  soft-mannered  scholar,  with 
the  serious  eyes  and  the  gentle  smile,  who  did  all  his 
class  work  with  such  dutiful  precision,  and  was  never 
at  fault  when  questioned  by  the  classical  master, 
whether  it  was  about  a  tough  passage  in  Tacitus,  a 
disputed  line  in  a  Greek  Chorus,  or  the  ^Eolic  Aorist, 
the  '  enclitic  de,'  or  the  geography  of  St.  Paul's  voyages. 

"  Our  classical  lecturer  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Browne,  an 
elegant  and  tasteful  scholar,  who  was  particularly 
strong  in  Greek  iambics,  and  loved  the  exactness  and 
the  ardour  of  his  rural  pupil.  For  like  myself,  Farrar 
in  those  days  had  lived  more  in  the  country  than  the 
town ;  and,  like  myself  also,  was  going  through  three 
or  four  terms  at  King's  College  before  proceeding  to 
the  University.  Sometimes  our  Latin  class  would  be 
taken  by  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  who  had  also, 
as  would  be  expected,  a  deep  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  classical  learning,  and  a  capacity  to  measure  the 
stately  grace  and  finished  skill  of  the  great  authors  of 
Athens  and  Rome.  Yet  the  personal  appearance  of 
that  eminent  clergyman  went  somewhat  strangely  —  not 
to  say  uncouthly  —  now  and  then  with  the  exquisite 
levity  of  Catullus,  and  the  plain  speaking  of  Juvenal. 

"  I  call  to  mind  with  half  amused,  half  painful  retro- 
spect an  afternoon  in  the  College  Hall,  when  Maurice 
was  reading  with  us  that  well-known  Ode  of  Horace, 
beginning  with  '  Quis  multa  gracilis  te  puer  in  rosa.' 
He  felt  no  doubt  better  than  we,  the  delicate  charm  with 
which  the  verses  were  embroidered  and  jewelled  by 
phrases  too  subtle  for  translation ;  but  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  solemn,  ascetic  countenance  of  the  lecturer, 
the  airy  daring  of  the  poet,  and  the  deplorable  levity  of 
his  Latin  lady  associates  proved  too  much  for  the  good 


28  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


behaviour  of  the  class.  The  students  broke  into  a  dis- 
respectful clamour,  offering  rude  comments,  and  auda- 
cious new  readings,  to  their  hypersensitive  teacher,  who 
became  so  indignant  at  such  disrespect  that  he  refused 
to  continue  his  lecture. 

"  To  teach  such  ill-mannered  pupils  for  a  nature  as 
refined  and  shy  as  that  of  Maurice  was  like  trying  to 
shape  logs  of  timber  with  a  penknife.  I  recall  the 
trivial  incident  only  to  mention  how  much  Farrar  im- 
pressed me  at  that  moment  by  the  youthful  gravity  with 
which  he  rebuked  the  noisiest  of  those  ungrateful  young 
rebels,  and  the  scholarly  shame  I  could  see  him  experi- 
encing at  the  slight  put  upon  the  famous  author  and 
the  gifted  tutor  who  were  being  so  unworthily  treated. 
The  words  of  agreement  which  passed  between  us  on 
that  occasion  served  as  an  introduction,  and  from  them 
arose  a  friendship  which  has  been  for  me  one  of  my 
most  prized  possessions,  and  which  never  changed,  and 
never  grew  colder  on  either  side  —  for  I  know  I  may 
venture  to  say  as  much  —  from  that  afternoon  when 
Farrar' s  gentle  indignation  helped  to  bring  the  hall 
to  its  senses,  until  the  day  when  my  class-fellow  died, 
a  pillar  and  ornament  of  the  Church,  and  the  most 
brilliant  name  upon  the  long  and  renowned  line  of  the 
Deans  of  Canterbury. 

"  There  grew  up,  as  all  are  aware,  between  Farrar  and 
Maurice  a  fast  friendship,  which  was  continued  until 
the  death  of  that  earnest  and  conscientious  man.  Far- 
rar was  not  likely  to  make  many  boyish  alliances  with 
the  students  who  flocked  at  that  time  to  King's  College. 
They  were  naturally  no  very  distinguished  samples  of 
the  rising  generation ;  and  were  attracted  in  larger 
numbers  to  the  practical  departments  of  the  institution 
than  to  its  classical  and  literary  side.    Some  half  a 


THE  STUDENT 


29 


dozen,  however,  in  each  of  the  classes  rapidly  separated 
themselves,  as  is  the  wont,  from  the  rank  and  file ;  and 
equally  as  is  also  the  custom,  tutors  and  professors  gave 
themselves  almost  exclusively  to  those  among  us  who 
had  evidently  come  to  learn.  We  formed,  therefore,  a 
favoured  little  clique,  of  which  Farrar  was  certainly  the 
best  and  brightest  specimen,  while  of  the  others  I  can 
call  up  very  few  individuals.  Mr.  Edward  Dicey,  C.B., 
was  one  of  them,  and  another  who  gave  promise  of  be- 
ing a  great  legal  luminary  was  Mr.  Clement  Tudway 
Swanston,  about  whom  I  only  know  that  he  afterwards 
married  the  daughter  of  a  well-known  judge,  and  be- 
came lost  to  literature  in  the  Nirvana  of  the  courts. 
But,  already  some  of  us  were  bent  upon  climbing  one 
side  or  the  other  of  Parnassus.  We  started  a  monthly 
serial  for  ourselves,  The  Kings  College  Magazine,  and 
I  think  that  the  very  earliest  efforts  of  our  respective 
muses,  as  regards  Farrar,  Dicey,  and  myself,  saw  the 
light  in  that  now-forgotten  periodical.  I  recollect  a 
little  poem  appearing  in  it  from  my  dear  old  friend 
upon  the  theme  of  a  Roman  triumph,  the  opening  line 

of  which  ran  :  — 

"  The  golden  Pompa  cometh, 
The  Pompa  streams  along ; 

and,  let  it  be  declared,  there  were  some  mighty  fine  lines 
in  that  little  piece  of  work.  So  were  there  also  in  cer- 
tain other  stanzas  from  his  pen,  describing  scenes  in 
Elysium,  of  which  my  memory  supplies  me  with  this 
pretty  passage  picturing  the  heroes  of  the '  Iliad  1  repos- 
ing after  their  warlike  toils,  and  telling  how 

"Achilles  and  Tydides 
In  happy  quiet  there 
Unbind  the  shadowy  helmets 
From  off  their  golden  hair. 


3o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


I  did  not  dare  then,  and  much  less  will  I  venture  now, 
to  set  anything  of  my  own  by  the  side  of  the  really  ex- 
cellent work  with  which  Farrar's  taste  and  learning  en- 
riched our  humble  serial.  He  was  nevertheless  pleased 
to  admire  a  certain  piece  of  mine  upon  'The  Sacrifice  of 
Iphigenia,'  and  it  is  a  curious  recollection,  showing 
how  the  early  bent  remained,  that  he  gained  the  Chan- 
cellor's prize  at  Cambridge,  for  English  verse,  in  the 
same  month  in  which  I  won  the  Newdigate  at  Oxford. 
Throughout  these  early  exercises  of  his  genius,  as  in  al- 
most everything  he  wrote  or  uttered  in  later  years,  there 
was  evidenced  that  deep-seated  love  of  ornamental  epi- 
thets and  richly  embellished  diction  which  sciolists, 
who  could  not  —  to  save  their  lives — have  penned  a 
single  line  to  rival  it,  attacked  as  '  florid,'  '  turgid,'  and 
'  tawdry.'  It  was  his  manner,  and  often  splendidly 
sustained.  Like  an  architect  who  prefers  to  build  in 
the  Corinthian  order,  rather  than  the  Doric,  or  Ionic,  he 
knew  well  what  he  was  about,  and  there  was  nothing 
except  erudite  adornment  and  masterful  command  of 
musical  or  beautiful  phrase  in  the  literary  acanthus 
leaves  of  his  capitals,  and  the  flowing  volutes  of  his 
rhetoric.  It  is  only  a  great  sculptor  who  will  have  the 
courage  to  make  his  statue  of  Pallas  Athene  out  of  gold 
and  ivory,  and  it  was  from  inexhaustible  quarries  of 
memory,  and  the  sure  control  of  a  wide  scholarship, 
that  he  could  thus  safely  trust  himself  to  gild  and  to 
embroider  the  melodious  march  of  his  periods. 

"  A  good  many  prizes  and  examinations  brought  our 
little  band  of  the  classical  department  into  almost  con- 
stant rivalry.  In  the  course  of  these  it  was  my  almost 
invariable  fate  to  be  proxime  accessit  to  Farrar,  thus  see- 
ing him  carry  off,  even  if  sometimes  only  1  by  a  neck,' 


THE  STUDENT 


31 


the  coveted  prize  of  the  race  ;  but  along  with  the  others 
I  grew  accustomed  to  these  inevitable  defeats,  soon 
learning  to  recognise  that  nothing  could  make  head 
against  his  indomitable  energies.  Oddly  enough,  I  beat 
him  in  one  or  two  theological  contests ;  and  my  library 
shelves  have  always  held  and  now  exhibit  a  dry  and 
solemn  work  entitled  '  Pearson  upon  the  Creed,'  which 
is  a  liturgical  trophy  presented  by  the  college  and  won 
in  battle  against  the  comrade  who  was  destined  to  die 
the  Dean  of  Canterbury.  In  subsequent  years,  when  he 
was  become  a  popular  and  famous  preacher  and  a  shin- 
ing light  of  the  Church,  I  did  not  allow  my  unopened 
volumes  to  persuade  me  even  secretly  that  I  ought  to 
have  been  made  a  bishop,  but  I  think  I  chuckled  more 
than  once  over  such  a  grotesque  triumph.  So  little, 
however,  did  these  rivalries  develop  into  jealousies  that 
on  one  occasion  when  he  had  vanquished  myself  and 
six  or  seven  others  in  a  scholarship  examination,  it  was 
I  who  took  a  cab  up  to  Clerkenwell  to  communicate  the 
fact  to  our  conqueror.  Nobody  in  truth  could  grudge 
any  success  to  his  modest  and  gentle  worth,  and  I  be- 
lieve that  I  was  almost  as  well  pleased  in  telling  him  as 
he  in  hearing.  '  The  same  old  story,  dear  boy,  Farrar 
first,  proxime  accessit  Arnold.' 

"There  he  was  —  only  a  few  hours  out  of  the  exami- 
nation-room —  working  away  as  hard  as  ever  for  some 
new  approaching  contest,  behind  a  barricade  of  books, 
maps,  and  dictionaries,  an  antagonist  too  indefatigable 
to  contend  with,  too  amiable  and  kind-hearted  to  envy 
or  underrate.  With  such  a  passion  and  power  for  work 
you  would  not  expect  to  hear  me  say  that  Farrar,  at  this 
time,  cared  for  out-of-doors  sports,  or  any  of  the  pas- 
times which  generally  absorb  youthful  enthusiasm.  We 
should  have  tried  in  vain  to  get  him  to  take  part  in  our 


32  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


occasional  boating  trips  on  the  river,  visits  to  the  theatre, 
cricket  matches,  and  the  like.  Books  were  enough  for 
him.  In  them  he  found  the  society  which  he  most  loved, 
and,  moreover,  he  knew  very  well  that  circumstances  at 
home  rendered  it  necessary  to  earn  his  living  by  them, 
and  win  from  scholarship  the  only  competence  likely  to 
fall  within  his  reach.  If  learning  was  to  be  the  goddess 
of  his  aspirations,  he  must,  somehow  or  other,  live  by 
what  lay  in  her  hands  to  bestow ;  and  in  this  respect  he 
was,  perhaps,  the  only  one  of  our  set  who  took  so  serious 
a  view  of  the  advantages  of  early  hard  work.  Yet  it  is 
only  when  a  young  man  begins  to  teach  himself,  that 
he  has  really  commenced  what  can  be  called  education. 

"  No  doubt  the  exclusiveness  arising  from  such  cease- 
less industry  kept  him  destitute  of  that  true  joy  of  early 
life  —  youthful  friendships  —  and  gave  to  his  character, 
among  those  who  judged  it  imperfectly,  an  air  of  asceti- 
cism and  semi-monkish  solitude.  Farrar  was  very  impa- 
tient, as  I  well  remember  while  at  King's  College,  of 
frivolous  conversation  and  the  light  jests  of  lazy  minds. 
I  am  afraid  at  that  date  he  looked  upon  the  society,  even 
of  ladies,  as  a  dreadful  waste  of  time,  and  the  gentler  sex 
itself  as,  in  the  ungallant  phrase  of  a  great  poet,  nothing 
better  than  'a  fair  defect.'  Often  since  then  I  have 
ventured  to  rally  him,  the  centre  of  an  adoring  wife  and 
affectionate  children,  the  light  of  a  happy  household ; 
but  he  stayed  me  once  by  quoting  from  Shakespeare 
what  Benedict  says,  '  When  I  swore  to  die  a  bachelor,  I 
did  not  think  that  I  should  live  to  be  married.' 

******* 

"  But  next  to  books,  even  in  those  days,  and  more  than 
books  in  the  days  which  came  afterwards,  little  children 
held  his  heart  by  the  strings.  For  them  he  always 
evinced  a  tenderness  and  interest  which  were  almost 


THE  STUDENT 


33 


feminine ;  and  it  was  quite  natural,  therefore,  that  after 
his  brilliant  career  at  Cambridge,  he  should  have  given 
himself  to  the  life  of  a  schoolmaster.  Anybody  may 
see  in  his  novel  of  school-life,  entitled  '  Eric,'  how  high 
his  estimate  was  of  what  a  good  teacher  ought  to  be, 
and  how  great  and  absorbing,  but  also  how  serious,  a 
duty,  he  thought  it  to  superintend  the  education  of 
youth.  I  sent  a  son  of  my  own  to  his  care  when  he 
was  appointed  head-master  of  Marlborough,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  I  regarded  him  as  the  best  of  all 
schoolmasters.  All  the  clever  boys  grew  deeply  at- 
tached to  the  patient,  earnest,  and  richly  endowed  man, 
whose  smile  was  so  sweet  when  an  act  of  boyish  virtue 
or  a  brilliant  piece  of  class-work  pleased  him,  and  who 
was  so  gentle  in  his  displeasure,  and  so  just,  even  in  his 
anger.  The  noisy,  lazy,  and  shallow  among  his  pupils 
found  him,  perhaps,  pedantic,  dry,  and  exacting,  for  he 
loved  hard  work  too  well  for  himself  to  understand  how 
distasteful  it  seemed  to  some  natures.  Boys  are  stern 
and  keen  judges  of  their  instructors,  and  those  who  were 
smitten  with  the  modern  passion  for  athletics  did  not  al- 
ways find  Farrar  enthusiastic  enough  about  cricket,  foot- 
ball, and  the  out-of-door  portion  of  an  English  boy's 
upbringing.  Yet  he  was  proud  of  the  victories  which 
Marlborough,  under  his  rule,  gained  in  the  fields  of  exer- 
cise and  youthful  competition,  though  I  doubt  whether 
he  ever  wielded  a  bat  or  handled  any  implement  of 
sport,  such  as  gun,  fishing-rod,  or  hunting  gear.  I,  do 
not  know  if  my  son  picked  up  at  Marlborough  any- 
thing much  more  important  than  to  swim  well,  yet  that 
was  certainly  not  the  fault  of  his  head-master.1  There 

1  Is  there  not  a  stcry  in  Goethe  where  the  fond  parent  brings  his  offspring 
to  a  famous  pedagogue  to  be  transformed  into  a  philosopher  ?  After  a 
year  or  so  the  father  comes  back  to  inquire  into  his  son's  progress,  and 


34  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


came  a  certain  evil  day  when  the  dahabieh,  in  which  I 
was  sailing  on  the  Nile,  was  capsized  by  a  desert  whirl- 
wind, and  the  fact  that  I  was  able  to  save  from  drown- 
ing my  wife,  my  daughter,  and  all  but  one  of  my  score 
of  Arab  sailors  was  largely  due  to  the  unclassical  por- 
tion of  the  training  which  my  son  obtained  while  a  pupil 
under  Dr.  Farrar's  mild  ferule. 

"  At  the  universities  we  were  separated  —  Farrar 
going  to  Cambridge  —  though  he  had,  I  think,  no 
very  great  taste  for  mathematics  —  and  I  to  Oxford. 
But  King's  College  had  made  us  lasting  friends,  and 
London  eventually  brought  us  again  into  personal  and 
literary  contact.  Others,  however,  will  have  the  happy 
task  of  dwelling  upon  the  steps  by  which  he  ascended 
the  hill  of  Fame,  becoming  even  more  renowned  as  a 
preacher  than  he  had  made  himself  as  a  teacher,  and 
building  up  a  record  of  honour  by  his  books,  one  of 
which  —  '  The  Life  of  Christ '  —  would  have  sufficed  to 
confer  renown  adequate  to  any  ambition.  The  world 
has  judged  that  magnificent  work  by  a  verdict  which  no 
petty  criticisms  can  affect  or  alter.  I  believe  that  it  has 
taken  and  will  always  occupy  an  important  place  on  the 
shelves  of  that  theological  literature  which  has  grown 
up  from  the  strong  and  earnest  desire  of  our  age  to 
reconcile  religion  and  science.  The  spirit  of  sincere 
belief  which  mingles  in  it  with  an  equally  sincere  devo- 
tion to  truth  is  to  be  found  also  in  his  '  Eternal  Hope,' 
and  was  heard  by  many  a  comforted  and  grateful  ear 
among  the  congregations  which  listened  with  delight  to 
his  ardent  sermons.  I,  however,  must  not  go  beyond 
the  period  of  his  noble  and  blameless  life  of  which  I  am 

beholds  him  gallop  up  at  the  head  of  a  string  of  horses  which  he  has  been 
training.  Whereupon  the  pedagogue  explains  that  he  would  have  made 
him  a  philosopher  if  his  Creator  had  not  intended  him  for  a  horse-breaker. 


THE  STUDENT 


35 


permitted,  in  these  few  pages,  to  recall  some  passing 
impressions.  It  was  for  me,  also,  an  epoch  of  impor- 
tance. Oxford  lay  before  me,  and  those  happy  years 
when,  under  her  wing,  work  and  play  went  so  pleasantly 
together,  and  we  passed  from  boyhood  to  manhood  over 
a  golden  bridge.  It  was  the  time  when  I  was  reading 
Shelley  and  Keats  and  Coleridge  with  a  great  deal  more 
assiduity  than  I  could  bring  to  classics  and  mathematics; 
and  then  the  British  Museum,  close  to  my  London 
lodgings,  absorbed  a  great  deal  of  my  devotion. 
Thus,  except  in  theology,  of  which  I  knew  nothing, 
and  Farrar  everything,  I  never  once  scored  against  my 
amiable  antagonist.  And  if  it  would  have  given  him 
one  grain  of  satisfaction,  I  think  I  could  have  sacrificed 
to  his  dear  and  pleasant  comradeship  even  '  Pearson 
upon  the  Creed.'  " 

The  following  touching  letter  from  an  old  King's 
College  friend  and  rival  is  of  interest  not  only  for  itself 
but  from  the  fact  that  it  is  utilised  in  connection  with 
one  of  the  characters  of  "  Julian  Home." 

"Canada  West,  30th  Oct.,  1858. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  Our  lots  in  life,  since  at  King's 
College  we  ran  a  neck  and  neck  race,  have  been  widely 
different. 

"  To  use  a  more  congenial  metaphor,  you  have  hitherto 
sailed  through  life  with  spreading  sails  and  flying  colours, 
until  you  are  now  quietly  anchored  at  Harrow,  after 
a  successful  voyage ;  while  I,  on  the  contrary,  have 
often  been  nearly  wrecked  from  mad  and  careless  navi- 
gation, and  my  shattered  bark,  which  made  a  bad  start 
from  Oxford,  has  turned  up  like  a  waif  or  stray  at  


36  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


(in  Canada  West),  and  is,  I  hope,  soon  going  to  be  en- 
tirely refitted. 

"  To  drop  the  well-worn  classical  simile,  I  have  come 
to  Canada  to  better  my  fortunes,  and  as  I  am  now  a 
wiser,  sadder,  and  better  man  than  I  have  been,  I  trust 
most  devoutly  to  succeed. 

"  I  am  a  candidate  for.  .  .  .  You  know,  my  dear 
Farrar,  that  I  was  naturally  blest  with  good  abilities. 
You  know  also,  doubtless,  from  some  kind  friend,  that 
I  sometimes  made  a  bad  use  of  these  abilities ;  but  in 
memory  of  our  old  King's  College  friendship  —  the  most 
pleasant  by  far  of  my  old  friendships  —  I  would  beg  of 
you  to  forget  my  errors,  and  ignore  my  shortcomings, 
and  to  speak  of  me  in  a  few  lines  of  recommendation 
as  you  once  knew  me  when  we  were  kindly  rivals  in  the 
arena  at  King's  College. 

******* 

"Though  I  have  begun  the  labour  of  life  later  in  the 
day  than  yourself  and  others,  and  have  not  borne  the 
heat,  I  cannot  forget  that  even  those  who  wrought  one 
hour  likewise  received  their  pay. 

"The  old  book  of  my  life  was  so  smutched  and 
begrimed,  torn,  dog-eared,  and  scrawled  over,  that  it 
was  scarcely  worth  while  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf.  I 
have,  therefore,  commenced  an  entirely  new  volume, 
and  trust  by  God's  blessing  that  when  '  Finis '  comes 
to  be  written  in  it,  some  few  of  the  pages  will  bear  re- 
perusal. 

"  At  the  distance  of  nearly  four  thousand  miles  from 
home  —  in  this  cold  climate  —  with  no  friends  —  no  for- 
tune —  nothing  but  my  head  and  heart  —  I  feel  some- 
times so  melancholy  that  I  almost  wish  to  be  out  of  the 
world  altogether. 

"  Forgive  me  then  for  writing  to  you  in  the  spirit  I 


THE  STUDENT 


37 


do  now,  and  pray  that  my  efforts  to  improve  my  life, 
my  talents,  and  my  fortunes  may  be  crowned  with  suc- 
cess. I  will  add  no  more.  Accept  my  kindest  wishes 
for  your  happiness  and  well  being,  and  believe  me,  my 
dear  Farrar,  now  as  ever, 

"  Your  sincere  friend, 

"  A.  B. 

"To  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Farrar,  Harrow." 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE 

In  October,  1856,  my  father  went  up  to  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  as  a  "  sizar,"  and  supported  himself 
at  first  entirely  on  the  income  derived  from  his  sizar- 
ship  and  King's  College  scholarship.  His  father,  being 
only  a  curate,  was  a  very  poor  man,  and  the  son  took 
a  legitimate  pride  in  the  fact  that  from  the  time  he 
entered  at  King's  College,  and  throughout  his  career 
at  Cambridge,  he  paid  the  expenses  of  his  own  educa- 
tion entirely  by  scholarships  and  exhibitions,  and,  as  he 
has  often  told  me,  his  education  never  cost  his  father  a 
penny.  So  poor  was  he,  and  so  rigid  was  his  self-denial 
and  his  resolution  to  spare  those  struggling  parents  in 
London  the  least  farthing  of  expenditure  on  himself, 
that  during  his  early  undergraduate  days  at  Trinity  he 
refused  himself  the  indulgence  of  tea  for  breakfast  and 
drank  only  water. 

At  this  period  the  sizars  dined  an  hour  after  the 
general  "  Hall,"  and  their  dinner  consisted  of  the 
dishes  which  had  previously  figured  on  the  Fellows' 
table.  In  other  ways  the  sizars  were  needlessly  dif- 
ferentiated by  somewhat  invidious  distinctions  from  the 
rest  of  the  undergraduates;  and  my  father,  judging  from 
some  remarks  in  "Julian  Home,"  seems  to  have  been 
rather  sensitive  on  this  head.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one 
he  obtained  a  Trinity  scholarship,  and  his  material  cir- 
cumstances were  greatly  improved.    Meanwhile  neither 

38 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE  39 


his  position  as  a  sizar,  nor  the  austere  self-denial  which, 
partly  from  necessity,  partly  from  a  strong  sense  of  duty, 
he  practised,  at  all  precluded  him  from  sharing  in  the 
best  intellectual  society  of  the  place.  In  particular  he 
was  a  member  of  the  very  small  society  of  "Apostles," 
a  club  formed  for  the  reading  and  discussion  of  papers, 
to  which  never  more  than  five  or  six  undergraduate 
members  at  a  time  belonged,  and  which  has  always  at- 
tracted, as  it  still  does,  the  best  intellects  of  Cambridge. 
To  this  society  such  men  as  Archbishop  Trench,  Dean 
Alford,  Thompson  Master  of  Trinity,  Lord  Houghton, 
F.  D.  Maurice,  Sterling,  Sir  Henry  Maine,  the  late 
Sir  A.  Buller,  Sir  J.  Fitzjames  Stephen,  Lord  Tenny- 
son, Arthur  Hallam,  F.  T.  Hort,  and  many  eminent 
men  now  living  have  been  proud  to  belong. 

One  of  his  fellow-members  and  a  very  intimate  per- 
sonal friend  was  the  late  Professor  J.  Clerk  Maxwell.  I 
extract,  as  illustrating  the  thoughtful  tone  prevalent  in 
his  circle  of  undergraduate  friends,  the  following  lines 
from  a  notice  of  his  friend,  contributed  by  my  father  to 
the  Temple  Magazine :  — 

"  At  one  time  when  I  was  an  undergraduate  I  became 
very  despondent  about  my  mathematics.  In  those  days 
the  rule  had  only  just  been  altered  which  insisted  that 
a  classical  student  should  take  honours  in  the  Mathe- 
matical Tripos  before  he  was  even  permitted  to  present 
himself  in  the  classical.  I  might  have  availed  myself  of 
this  rule,  but  did  not  like  to  do  so.  Having  been  origi- 
nally intended  for  Oxford,  I  had  never  taken  much 
trouble  with  mathematics,  and  had,  moreover,  been  very 
badly  and  carelessly  trained  in  them.  Hence  I  was 
nervous  about  the  Tripos ;  and  seeing  this,  Maxwell,  who 
was  a  ready  verse-writer,  felt  a  genuine  sympathy  with 
me  in  my  disheartenment,  and  wrote  me  a  little  apologue 


40  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


called  '  The  Lark  and  the  Cabbage.'  In  this  he  com- 
pared himself,  with  his  mathematical  studies,  to  the  cab- 
bage ;  and  me,  with  my  supposed  poetic  aspirations,  to 
the  lark,  the  upshot  being  that  I  had  better  not 
attempt  the  Mathematical  Tripos,  but  reserve  myself 
for  classics.  I  replied  in  a  similar  strain  of  nonsense, 
ending  with  — 

"  It  is  a  lark  to  be  a  lark, 

'Tis  green  to  be  a  cabbage. 

"  Sometimes,  however,  he  wrote  more  serious  verses ; 
and  when  I  left  Cambridge  he  was  one  of  the  half-dozen 
friends  who  entered  their  thoughts  for  me  in  a  little 
manuscript  book.  What  he  wrote  was  striking  and 
noble  —  far  more  so,  I  should  imagine,  than  has  often 
been  written  by  one  undergraduate  for  another.  It  was 
as  follows :  — 

"  '  He  that  would  enjoy  life  and  act  with  freedom  must 
have  the  work  of  the  day  continually  before  his  eyes. 
Not  yesterday's  work,  lest  he  fall  into  despair ;  not  to- 
morrow's, lest  he  become  a  visionary ;  not  that  which 
ends  with  the  day,  which  is  a  worldly  work;  nor  yet 
that  only  which  remains  to  eternity,  for  by  it  he  cannot 
shape  his  actions. 

"  1  Happy  is  the  man  who  can  recognize  in  the  work  of 
to-day  a  connected  portion  of  the  work  of  life,  and  an 
embodiment  of  the  work  of  eternity.  The  foundations 
of  his  confidence  are  unchangeable,  for  he  has  been 
made  a  partaker  of  Infinity.  He  strenuously  works  out 
his  daily  enterprises,  because  the  present  is  given  him 
for  a  possession.  Thus  ought  man  to  be  an  impersona- 
tion of  the  divine  process  of  nature,  and  to  show  forth 
the  union  of  the  infinite  with  the  finite ;  not  slighting 
his  temporal  existence,  remembering  that  in  it  only  is 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE  41 


individual  action  possible,  nor  yet  shutting  out  from  his 
view  that  which  is  eternal,  knowing  that  time  is  a  mys- 
tery which  man  cannot  endure  to  contemplate  until 
eternal  truth  enlighten  it.' " 

In  those  days  dinner  was  celebrated  at  what  seems  to 
us  the  early  hour  of  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  an 
arrangement  which  gave  a  long  morning  for  work ;  and, 
for  reading  men  of  that  time,  when  athletics  were  less 
highly  organised  than  is  now  the  case,  a  long  evening, 
a  two  hours'  "constitutional"  before  Hall  being  the 
usual  form  of  exercise. 

About  nine  o'clock  the  undergraduate  was  quite  ready 
for  tea  and  the  relaxation  of  a  chat,  and  it  was  the  rec- 
ognized custom  that  a  man  was  at  liberty  to  drop  in  and 
take  "  tea-pot  luck "  with  any  friend  provided  that  he 
contributed  to  his  own  entertainment  by  bringing  with 
him  his  milk-jug. 

A  quotation  from  "Julian  Home,"  which  like  "Eric" 
contains  many  autobiographical  touches,  is  here  given  to 
illustrate  the  zest  with  which  my  father  entered  into  the 
social  life  of  his  college  :  — 

"Oh,  those  Camford  conversations  —  how  impetuous, 
how  interesting,  how  thoroughly  hearty  and  unconven- 
tional they  were  !  How  utterly  presumption  and  igno- 
rance were  scouted  in  them,  and  how  completely  they 
were  free  from  the  least  shadow  of  insincerity  or  ennui. 
If  I  could  but  transfer  to  my  page  a  true  and  vivid  pic- 
ture of  one  such  evening  spent  in  the  society  of  St. 
Werner's  (Trinity  College)  friends  —  if  I  could  write 
down  but  one  such  conversation,  and  at  all  express  its 
vivacity,  its  quick  flashes  of  thought  and  logic,  its  real 
desire  for  truth  and  knowledge,  its  friendly  fearlessness, 
its  felicitous  illustrations,  its  unpremeditated  wit,  such  a 
record,  taken  fresh  from  the  life,  would  be  worth  all  that 


42 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


I  shall  ever  write.  But  youth  flies,  and  as  she  flies  all 
the  bright  colours  fade  from  the  wings  of  thought,  and 
the  bloom  vanishes  from  the  earnest  eloquence  of  speech. 

"  Yet,  as  I  write,  let  me  call  to  mind,  if  but  for  a  mo- 
ment, the  remembrance  of  those  happy  evenings,  when 
we  would  meet  to  read  Shakespeare  or  the  poets  in  each 
other's  rooms,  and  pleasant  sympathies  and  pleasant 
differences  of  opinion,  freely  discussed,  called  into  genial 
life  friendships  which  we  once  hoped  and  believed  would 
never  have  grown  cold.  The  belief  has  proved  to  be 
mistaken,  the  hope  delusive,  and  the  evanescence  of 
youthful  friendships,  amid  the  hardness  and  malice  of 
the  world,  is  not  the  least  bitter  of  life's  experiences. 
Rut  though  the  reality  has  ceased,  who  shall  forbid  to 
any  one  the  enjoyment  of  remembrance  ?  Let  the  image 
of  that  bright  social  circle,  picturesquely  scattered  in 
arm-chairs  round  the  winter  fire,  rise  up  before  my  fancy 
once  more,  and  let  me  recall  what  can  never  be  again. 
Of  the  honoured  and  well-loved  few  who  one  night  re- 
corded their  names  and  thoughts  in  one  precious  little 
book  two  are  dead,  though  it  is  but  five  years  back ; 

C.  E.  B         is  dead ;  and  R.  H.  P  is  dead ;  C.  E. 

B  ,  the  chivalrous  and  gallant-hearted,  the  champion 

of  the  past,  the  '  Tory  whom  Liberals  loved ' ;  and 

R.  H.  P  ,  the  honest  and  noble,  the  eloquent  speaker, 

and  the  brave  actor,  and  the  fearless  thinker  —  he,  too, 
is  dead,  nobly  volunteering  in  works  of  danger  and  diffi- 
culty during  the  Indian  mutiny ;  but  others  are  living 
yet,  and  to  them  I  consecrate  this  page ;  they  will  for- 
give the  digression,  and  for  their  sakes  I  will  venture  to 
let  it  pass.  We  are  scattered  now,  and  our  friendship 
is  a  silent  one ;  but  yet  I  know  that  to  them,  at  least, 
changed  or  unchanged,  my  words  will  recall  the  fading 
memory  of  glorious  days." 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE 


43 


His  method  of  work  and  reading  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  following  extract :  — 

"  He  studied  with  an  ardour  and  a  passion  before 
which  difficulties  vanished,  and  in  consequence  of  which 
he  seemed  to  progress  not  the  less  surely,  because  it 
was  with  great  strides.  For  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
Julian  found  himself  entirely  alone  in  the  great  wide 
realm  of  literature  —  alone  to  wander  at  his  own  will, 
almost  without  a  guide.  And  joyously  did  that  brave 
young  spirit  pursue  its  way  —  now  resting  in  some  fra- 
grant glen,  and  by  some  fountain  mirror,  where  the 
boughs  which  bent  over  him  were  bright  with  blossom 
and  rich  with  fruit  —  now  plunging  into  some  deep 
thicket,  where  at  every  step  he  had  to  push  aside  the 
heavy  branches  and  tangled  weeds  —  and  now  climbing 
with  toilful  progress  some  steep  and  rocky  hill,  on  whose 
summit,  hardly  attained,  he  could  rest  at  last,  and  gaze 
back  over  perils  surmounted  and  precipices  passed,  and 
mark  the  thunder  rolling  over  the  valleys,  or  gaze  on 
kingdoms  full  of  peace  and  beauty,  slumbering  in  the 
broad  sunshine  beneath  his  feet.  Julian  read  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge,  and  because  he  intensely  enjoyed 
the  great  authors  whose  thoughts  he  studied.  He  had 
read  parts  of  Homer,  parts  of  Thucydides,  parts  of 
Tacitus,  parts  of  the  tragedians,  at  school,  but  now  he 
had  it  in  his  power  to  study  a  great  author  entire,  and 
as  a  whole.  Never  before  did  he  fully  appreciate  the 
'  thunderous  lilt '  of  Greek  epic,  the  touching  and  vo- 
luptuous tenderness  of  Latin  elegy,  the  regal  pomp  of 
history,  the  gorgeous  and  philosophic  mystery  of  the  old 
dramatic  fables.  Never  before  had  he  learnt  to  gaze 
on  'the  bright  countenance  of  truth,  in  the  mild  and 
dewy  air  of  delightful  studies.'  Those  who  decry  clas- 
sical education  do  so  from  inexperience  of  its  real  char- 


44  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


acter  and  value,  and  can  hardly  conceive  the  sense  of 
strength  and  freedom  which  a  young  and  ingenuous  in- 
tellect acquires  in  all  literature,  and  in  all  thought,  by 
the  laborious  and  successful  endeavour  to  enter  into  that 
noble  heritage  which  has  been  left  us  by  the  wisdom  of 
bygone  generations.  Those  hours  were  the  happiest  of 
Julian's  life ;  often  would  he  be  beguiled  by  his  studies 
into  the  '  wee  small '  hours  of  night ;  and  in  the  grand 
company  of  eloquent  men  and  profound  philosophers 
he  would  forget  everything  in  the  sense  of  intellectual 
advance.  Then  first  he  began  to  understand  Milton's 
noble  exclamation :  — 

"  How  charming  is  divine  philosophy  ! 
Not  harsh  and  rugged  as  dull  fools  suppose. 
But  musical  as  is  Apollo's  lute, 
And  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectared  sweets, 
Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns. 

k 

"  He  studied  accurately,  yet  with  appreciation ;  some- 
times the  two  ways  of  study  are  not  combined,  and  while 
one  man  will  be  content  with  a  cold  and  barren  estimate 
of  7e's  and  7roi/s  derived  from  wading  through  the  un- 
utterable tedium  of  interminable  German  notes,  of  which 
the  last  always  contradicted  all  the  rest;  another  will 
content  himself  with  eviscerating  the  general  meaning 
of  a  passage,  without  any  attempt  to  feel  the  finer  pulses 
of  emotion,  or  discriminate  the  nicer  shades  of  thought. 
Eschewing  commentators  as  much  as  he  could,  Julian 
would  first  carefully  go  over  a  long  passage  solely  with 
a  view  to  the  clear  comprehension  of  the  author's  lan- 
guage, and  would  then  re-read  the  whole  for  the  pur- 
pose of  enjoying  and  appreciating  the  thoughts  which 
the  words  enshrined  ;  and  finally,  when  he  had  finished 
a  book  or  a  poem,  would  run  through  it  again  as  a  whole 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE  45 


with  all  the  glow  and  enthusiasm  of  a  perfect  compre- 
hension. 

"  Sunday  at  Camford  was  a  happy  day  for  Julian  Home. 
It  was  a  day  of  perfect  leisure  and  rest ;  the  time  not 
spent  at  church  or  in  the  society  of  others  he  generally 
occupied  in  taking  a  longer  walk  than  usual,  or  in  the 
luxuries  of  solemn  and  quiet  thought.  But  the  greatest 
enjoyment  was  to  revel  freely  in  books,  and  devote  him- 
self, unrestrained,  to  the  gorgeous  scenes  of  poetry,  or 
the  passionate  pages  of  eloquent  men.1  On  that  day  he 
drank  deeply  of  pure  streams  that  refreshed  him  for  his 
weekly  work  ;  nor  did  he  forget  some  hour  of  commune, 
in  the  secrecy  of  his  chamber  and  the  silence  of  his 
heart,  with  that  God  and  Father  in  whom  alone  he 
trusted,  and  to  whom  alone  he  looked  for  deliverance 
from  difficulty  and  guidance  under  temptation.  Of  all 
hours  his  happiest  and  strongest  were  those  in  which 
he  was  alone  —  alone,  except  for  a  heavenly  presence, 
sitting  at  the  feet  of  a  Friend,  and  looking  face  to  face 
upon  himself." 

The  effect  produced  upon  his  mind  by  the  chapel 
services  he  thus  describes :  — 

"  St.  Werner's  (Trinity)  Chapel  on  a  Sunday  evening  is 
a  moving  sight.  Five  hundred  men  in  surplices  throng- 
ing the  chapel  from  end  to  end  —  the  very  flower  of 
English  youth,  in  manly  beauty,  in  strength,  in  race,  in 
courage,  in  mind  —  all  kneeling,  side  by  side,  bound  to- 
gether in  a  common  bond  of  union  by  the  grand  historic 
association  of  that  noble  place  —  all  mingling  their  voices 
together  with  the  treble  of  the  choir  and  the  thunder- 
music  of  the  organ.  This  is  a  spectacle  not  often  equalled ; 
and  to  take  a  share  in  it  as  one  for  whose  sake,  in 

1  The  poets  that  most  influenced  his  mind  at  this  period  were  Milton, 
Wordsworth,  and  Coleridge. 


46  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


part,  it  has  been  established,  is  a  privilege  not  to  be 
forgotten." 

I  make  no  apology  for  introducing  these  passages 
from  "Julian  Home"  because,  from  many  conversations 
I  have  had  with  my  father,  I  know  that  they  reproduce 
not  only  his  ideals,  but  his  practice  and  habit  of  mind 
during  his  Cambridge  career. 

The  following  extract  from  "  Men  I  Have  Known  " 
gives  us  a  good  idea  of  his  attainments  in  his  under- 
graduate days : — 

"  Professor  Harold  Browne,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Ely 
and  Winchester,  was  always  kind  to  me.  He  welcomed 
some  of  my  papers  in  the  Preliminary  Examination  with 
words  of  singularly  high  encouragement,  and  told  me 
that  he  had  kept  them  for  years.  I  only  came  across 
the  learned  Professor  Mill  once.  He  had  set  a  paper 
in  the  University  Scholarship  Examination,  and  his  way 
always  was  to  print  four  or  five  Latin  and  Greek  pas- 
sages for  translation,  and  ask  the  candidates  to  assign 
them  to  their  proper  authors.  This  was  generally  an 
easy  thing  to  do ;  but  one  year  he  set  a  passage  from  the 
soldier-historian,  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  who  died  about 
a.d.  390,  and  had  been  an  officer  in  the  bodyguard  of  the 
Emperor  Julian.  I  should  think  that  this  was  the  first 
and  the  only  instance  in  which  the  Latinity  of  the  Syrian 
author  has  been  used  as  a  test  of  scholarship  in  a  Uni- 
versity competition.  Dr.  Mill  told  me  that  I  was  the 
only  one  of  all  the  candidates  who  had  assigned  the 
passage  to  its  rightful  author ;  and  as  I  was  only  a  fresh- 
man at  the  time,  he  was  a  little  surprised,  and  asked  me 
how  I  came  to  be  acquainted  with  such  a  writer,  whom 
he  personally  admired,  but  who  was  wholly  unknown  to 
the  classical  curriculum  of  Cambridge.  I  answered  that 
it  was  by  mere  accident.    Ammianus  Marcellinus  is  not 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE  47 


infrequently  referred  to  in  Elliot's  '  Horae  Apocalyp- 
ticae,'  and  this  had  interested  me  in  him,  and  made  me 
acquainted  with  his  style." 

By  his  untiring  industry,  joined  to  a  memory  singu- 
larly retentive,  my  father  not  only  attained  distinguished 
university  success,  but  laid  the  foundation  of  an  edifice 
of  learning,  which  those  of  his  contemporaries  who  knew 
him  best  regarded  as  phenomenal. 

His  college  tutor,  J.  L.  Hammond,  thus  wrote  of 
him :  "  From  a  long  list  of  pupils  I  should  select  him 
as  the  one  most  remarkable  for  mental  activity  and 
eager  pursuit  of  knowledge.  To  this  vigour  and  earnest- 
ness of  purpose  he  united  a  high  and  generous  spirit 
and  a  perfectly  blameless  character  —  the  pleasantness 
of  his  manners  and  the  frankness  and  amiability  of  his 
disposition  made  him  one  of  the  most  agreeable,  as  he 
certainly  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished,  of  my  pupils." 

In  1854  he  graduated  B.A.  First  class  (bracketed 
Fourth  Classic)  in  the  Classical  Tripos  and  a  junior 
optime  in  the  Mathematical  Tripos.  In  1855  he  won 
the  Le  Bas  Prize  (for  an  essay  on  "  The  Influence  of  the 
Revival  of  Classical  Studies  on  English  Literature  dur- 
ing the  Reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I  ").  In  1856  he 
was  elected  a  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  and  won  the 
Norrisian  Prize  (for  an  essay  on  "  The  Christian  Doctrine 
of  the  Atonement  not  inconsistent  with  the  Justice  and 
Goodness  of  God").    He  graduated  M.A.  in  1857. 

"  The  Master  of  Trinity  at  this  epoch  was  the  famous 
Dr.  Whewell,  author  of  the  '  History  '  and  of  the  '  Philos- 
ophy of  the  Inductive  Sciences,'  a  man  who  was  supposed 
to  know  'something  about  everything,  and  everything 
about  some  things,'  and  of  whom  it  was  said  that '  science 
was  Dr.  Whewell's  forte,  omniscience  his  foible.'  On  one 
occasion,  two  of  the  Fellows,  thinking  to  get  beyond  his 


48  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


range,  began  to  talk  on  the  subject  of  Chinese  meta- 
physics, v/hich  they  had  got  up  for  the  purpose.  Whe- 
well  listened  in  silence  for  a  time,  and  then  observed, 
'  Ah  !  I  see  you  have  been  reading  a  paper  which  I 
wrote  for  an  Encyclopaedia  of  Science.'  After  that, 
they  laid  no  more  plots  to  find  limits  to  his  universal 
knowledge ! " 

My  father  thus  writes  of  him  :  "  I  vividly  recall  the 
fine  and  stately  presence  of  the  Master,  which  (as  an- 
other myth  related)  made  a  prize-fighter  deplore  that  so 
splendid  a  physique,  and  such  thews  and  sinews,  should 
be  thrown  away  on  a  mere  clergyman !  " 

"  To  me  Dr.  Whewell  was  always  kind,  and  more  than 
kind.  When  I  was  elected  a  Scholar  he  addressed  me 
in  friendly  terms.  He  read  through  with  me  the  poem 
on  '  The  Arctic  Regions,'  which  obtained  for  me  the 
Chancellor's  medal.  In  one  line  I  had  called  the  ice- 
bergs 'unfabled  Strophades.'  'Ah!'  he  said,  'an  ad- 
mirable expression  ! '  And  he  had  a  little  talk  with  me 
as  to  whether  I  meant  a  particular  word  to  be  '  irrides- 
cence'  or  'iridescence.'  In  the  examination  for  the 
Trinity  Fellowships  a  paper  was  always  set  in  Moral 
Philosophy  and  Metaphysics.  I  happened  to  have  read 
all  through  the  works  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  for 
whom  I  felt  in  those  days  a  boundless  admiration,  and 
whose  works  I  had  selected  for  one  of  my  Trinity  prizes. 
In  my  paper  I  had  often  referred  to  the  views  of  Cole- 
ridge, and  this  pleased  the  Master  very  much,  for 
(though  I  did  not  know  it)  he,  too,  had  a  great  sympathy 
and  admiration  for  S.  T.  C.  He  told  me  with  a  pleasant 
smile  that  he  had  never  before  met  with  a  fellowship 
candidate  who  had  made  the  same  use  of  Coleridge's 
views  as  I  had  done."  Criticising  some  essay  of  my 
father's  in  which  he  thought  he  had  made  undue  use 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE 


49 


of  the  editorial  "we,"  Dr.  Whewell  said,  "Ah,  that  is 
what  I  call  'Wegotism.' " 

The  Chancellor's  gold  medal  for  English  verse  was 
won  by  my  father  in  1852.  The  subject  for  the  year 
was  "  The  Arctic  Regions  and  the  Hopes  of  Discover- 
ing the  Lost  Adventurers."  In  his  "  Reminiscences  of 
Lord  Tennyson  "  he  thus  tells  the  story  of  it :  — 

"  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  the  Chancellor's 
gold  medal  at  Cambridge  for  a  poem  —  a  very  poor  one, 
I  fear  —  on  'The  Arctic  Regions.'  It  was  in  blank 
verse,  and  my  competing  for  the  medal  was  almost  ex- 
clusively due  to  the  accident  that  I  had  once  been 
detained  for  more  than  two  hours  at  a  small  railway 
station  in  the  country.  The  prize  had  not  once  been 
given  for  a  poem  in  blank  verse  since  the  single  occa- 
sion on  which  it  had  been  won  by  Tennyson  in  1829  for 
a  poem  on  '  Timbuctoo.'  There  is  a  legend  at  Cam- 
bridge that  one  of  the  then  examiners  —  the  History 
Professor,  Professor  Smyth  —  had  written  on  the  outer 
leaf  of  this  poem  v.q.,  which  he  meant  for  'very  queer,' 
but  the  other  examiners  took  it  for  v.g., '  very  good,'  and 
assigned  the  medal  to  it.  The  legend  is,  I  should  think, 
an  entire  myth,  and  unquestionably  Tennyson's  prize 
poem  contains  some  far  finer  passages  than  any  other 
poem  which  had  been  so  rewarded  either  at  Cambridge  or 
Oxford,  though  among  the  successful  competitors  have 
been  such  names  as  those  of  Heber,  Macaulay,  and  Mack- 
worth  Praed.  As  so  many  years  had  elapsed  since  he 
had  broken  a  fixed  tradition  by  a  blank  verse  poem,  and 
since  I  had  followed  his  example,  I  took  the  liberty, 
which  I  knew  his  kindness  would  forgive,  of  sending 
him  my  verses,  and  mentioning  the  circumstance.  In 
those  days  the  poet  wrote  his  own  letters,  which  he  rarely 
did  in  later  years,  and  I  received  the  following  reply  :  — ■ 


50  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

"  '  Dear  Sir  :  —  I  have  just  received  your  prize  poem, 
for  which  I  return  you  my  best  thanks.  I  believe  it  is 
true  that  mine  was  the  first  written  in  blank  verse  which 
obtained  the  Chancellor's  medal.  Nevertheless  (and 
though  you  assure  me  that  reading  it  gave  you  the  deep- 
est pleasure),  I  could  wish  that  it  had  never  been  written. 
—  Believe  me,  dear  sir,  yours  very  truly, 

" '  A.  Tennyson.'  " 

The  two  following  letters  from  Cambridge  friends  are 
given  to  illustrate  the  high  level  of  life  and  thought 
which  obtained  in  the  little  coterie  of  friends :  — 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  have  just  read  the  Tripos  list, 
and  I  assure  you  that  your  place  gave  me  more  pleasure 
than  any  other,  bracketed  with  your  old  enemy  —  or 
rather  rival.  There  is  no  one,  dear  Farrar,  of  all  those 
who  have  gone  out  this  year  who  in  my  opinion  has 
been  a  greater  blessing  to  the  circle  of  friends  among 
whom  they  have  been  thrown  than  you  have — all  who 
knew  you  must  ever  recollect  the  kindness  and  goodness 
of  your  heart,  and  the  warmth  of  your  love.  Your  social 
and  pleasant  evenings  in  which  the  greatest  pleasure 
was  always  to  hear  you  talk  will  ever  be  one  of  my 
dearest  recollections  of  Trinity.  I  am  sure,  too,  you  will 
let  me  add  that  there  is  no  one  to  whom  a  University 
career  has  done  more  good  or  on  whom  high  University 
honours  could  have  been  better  conferred,  than  on  you. 
Others  may  have  maintained  their  former  reputation. 
But  you  have  each  year  increased  yours  —  and  will  no 
doubt  shortly  succeed  in  surprising  every  one  by  some 
tremendous  doings  in  the  fellowships.  .  .  . 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

"William  E.  Robinson." 


THE  UNDERGRADUATE  51 


Judge  Vernon  Lushington  writes  :  — 

******* 

"  To  me  he  then  seemed  —  and  I  greet  the  memory 
of  it  —  as  the  type  of  a  gifted  and  rich-hearted  young 
student,  rejoicing  in  his  first  outlook  on  intellectual  life 
as  a  man.  He  had  no  special  interest,  I  think,  in  the 
scientific  studies  of  the  place,  or  even  in  history,  and 
still  less  in  politics ;  but  in  scripture  phrase  he  had 
'  compassion  for  the  multitude.' 

"  His  subject  was  a  pure  and  exalted  personal  morality 
for  all,  not  of  the  mere  negative  kind,  but  a  very  active 
one,  and  the  imaginative  literature  illustrating  such 
aspirations,  —  the  literae  Jmrnaniores  in  short.  He  de- 
lighted in  '  the  cloud  of  witnesses.'  These  he  studied 
with  extraordinary  eagerness,  for  the  matter  chiefly,  but 
also  for  the  form.  They  fed  his  ardent  spirit,  gave  him 
a  great  hope  and  courage,  and  called  forth  his  own 
powers  of  copious  expression  both  by  word  and  pen. 

"  His  own  life  at  that  time  was  a  retired  one.  Simple 
and  healthy  himself,  he  took  little  or  no  part  in  games 
or  other  amusements ;  he  was  essentially  a  student,  and 
a  most  industrious  one,  consorting  meanwhile  with  the 
most  thoughtful  of  his  contemporaries,  and  delighting 
in  discussing  with  them  his  favourite  subjects :  they  in 
turn  recognised  his  remarkable  talents  and  character. 
Mutatis  mutandis  he  was  a  sort  of  young  Milton  among 
them.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  often  in  his  fa- 
miliar company,  and  we  were  always  on  affectionate 
terms,  but  I  hardly  lived  with  him.  Our  after  paths 
diverged,  and  I  had  no  share,  except  as  a  remote  spec- 
tator, in  his  brilliant  and  strenuous  career.  But  our  af- 
fectionate regard  for  one  another  remained  on  both  sides 
unchanged  to  the  end. 


53 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  To  sum  up  :  in  my  memory  of  your  father,  the  youth 
was  in  a  rare  degree  the  father  to  the  man.  He  showed 
in  his  youthful  manhood  the  elements,  the  striking  fea- 
tures of  his  after  goodness  and  distinction  ;  necessarily 
also  the  corresponding  limitations  (since  life  is  so  wide 
as  well  as  so  deep,  and  happily  so  manifold). 

"  With  grateful  and  happy  recollections  of  my  old 
friend,  I  am 

"  Always  truly  yours, 

"Vernon  Lushington." 


CHAPTER  V 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH 

In  1854,  before  the  results  of  the  Tripos  were  out, 
he  was  invited  to  become  an  assistant  master  at  Marl- 
borough College.  The  circumstances  of  this  mastership 
and  of  his  ordination  are  told  in  an  autobiographical  frag- 
ment, "  My  First  Sermon,"  contributed  to  a  magazine:  — 

"  My  life  has  been  planned  and  guided  for  me.  When 
I  stood  for  my  degree  at  Cambridge,  I  did  not  know  what 
my  lot  was  to  be.  I  had  decided  to  become  a  candidate 
for  Holy  Orders  ;  but  whether  I  should  stay  up  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  try  for  a  fellowship,  and  live  on  it 
as  a  tutor,  or  whether  I  should  take  a  curacy  somewhere 
in  the  country,  or  whether  I  should  seek  work  as  a  school- 
master, or  whether  I  should  become  a  missionary  as  my 
father  had  before  me,  all  these  things  lay,  as  Homer  says, 
'on  the  knees  of  the  Gods.'  The  call  and  the  direction 
came  unsought.  Before  my  degree  was  out  I  received 
a  letter  from  the  Head-master  of  Marlborough  College, 
afterward  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  Dr.  G.  E.  L.  Cotton,  — 
then  a  perfect  stranger,  —  asking  me  to  accept  a  mas- 
tership in  the  Wiltshire  College,  where  my  friends,  Pro- 
fessor E.  S.  Beesly  and  Mr.  E.  A.  Scott,  were  already 
at  work.  I  obeyed  the  call,  and  after  a  few  weeks  Dr. 
Cotton,  who  remained  a  very  dear  friend  to  me  and 
corresponded  with  me  up  to  the  day  of  his  sudden  and 
lamented  death,  asked  me  to  be  his  colleague  in  the 
work  of  the  Sixth  Form.    Many  of  the  boys  in  that 

S3 


54  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Sixth  Form  have,  since  then,  risen  to  positions  of  emi- 
nence. I  remember  once  seeing  a  boy  chasing  another, 
who  wore  a  scarlet  cap,  round  the  court,  and  shouting 
after  him,  '  Keblepuris  !  Keblepuris  ! '  That  is  the  Greek 
for  the  '  red  cap,'  and  the  boy  had  taken  it  from  '  The 
Birds '  of  Aristophanes,  which  we  were  then  reading. 
The  boy  who  was  chasing  the  other  is  now  the  Right 
Reverend,  the  Primate  of  Australia;  the  boy  in  the  red 
cap  is  now  the  Right  Reverend,  the  Lord  Bishop  of 
Glasgow.    It  reminds  one  of  Shenstone's  lines  :  — 

"Yet,  nurs'd  with  skill,  what  dazzling  fruits  appear! 
E'en  now  sagacious  foresight  points  to  show 

A  little  bench  of  heedless  Bishops  here, 
And  there  a  Chancellor  in  embryo. 

"When  Cotton  went  to  Marlborough  the  school,  now  so 
popular  and  famous,  was  passing  through  an  acute  period 
in  its  history.  One  of  the  first  remarks  which  Dr.  Cotton 
made  to  me  was,  '  You  know  any  day  the  school  may 
disappear  in  blue  smoke.'  The  college  was  at  that  time 
overwhelmed  with  debt,  owing  to  bad  management,  and 
at  first  each  boy  was  actually  costing  more  than  the  low 
annual  sum  he  paid,  though  the  boys  were  badly  fed 
and  roughly  housed.  With  indomitable  patience  and 
resolution,  and  often  '  in  the  teeth  of  clenched  antago- 
nisms,' Cotton  altered  this;  and  though  he  was  by  no 
means  a  facile  schoolmaster,  and  could  punish  with  sever- 
ity, his  quaint  humour  and  his  unqualified  devotion  to 
their  interests,  together  with  his  admirable  weekly  ser- 
mons, soon  gave  him  the  highest  influence  among  the 
boys.  He  gathered  round  him  a  devoted  staff  of  mas- 
ters, who,  for  the  sake  of  the  school,  were  ready  for  any 
self-denial,  and  who  treated  the  boys  as  so  many  younger 
brothers.     In  the  old  rough  days  there  were  masters 


I 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  55 

who,  though  they  doubtless  meant  to  be  kind,  kept  up 
the  inexorable  severity  with  which,  until  this  generation, 
boys  had  normally  been  trained  for  many  years.  In 
those  days  the  commonest  possible  sight  was  to  see 
boys'  backs  scored  with  red  and  blue  marks  from  strokes 
of  the  cane,  or  to  see  their  hands  sore  or  cut  from  what 
were  called  '  pandies,'  inflicted  by  the  same  instrument 
of  torture.  Nous  avons  change"  tout  cela.  The  'rebel- 
lion,' which  had  most  seriously  shaken  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  school,  was  hardly  detumescent ;  but  Cotton's 
sovereign  good  sense  soon  swept  away  even  the  remem- 
brance of  it.  I  recollect  that,  when  I  arrived  as  a  young 
master,  some  forty-three  years  ago,  the  first  thing  I  saw 
was  a  huge  chalk  inscription  on  the  wall,  '  Bread  or 
blood!''  Cotton  simply  summoned  the  boys  together, 
told  them  that  his  best  efforts  were  being  given  to  im- 
prove the  commissariat  (which  was  not  in  his  hands), 
and  that,  instead  of  scrawling  up  vulgar  and  stupid  in- 
scriptions, they  should  confide  in  him.  The  masters  con- 
ferred together,  swept  away  the  old  bursar-and-steward 
arrangement,  took  the  finances  in  their  own  hands,  agreed 
not  to  draw  one  penny  of  their  incomes  till  the  end  of 
the  year  (to  save  interest),  and  then  to  regard  each  pound 
as  a  share.  They  also  offered  to  give  up  the  whole  of 
their  incomes  altogether,  if  funds  were  not  forthcoming, 
or  only  to  take  any  percentage  of  them  which  might  be 
available.  At  the  end  of  the  year  —  such  had  been  the 
improvement  inthe  management — every  hundred  pounds 
was  worth  more  than  a  hundred  pounds,  though  the  com- 
fort of  the  boys  had  been  largely  and  in  every  way  im- 
proved. The  whole  body  of  masters  then  at  once  gave 
up  the  additional  quota  which  was  fairly  theirs.  That 
year  of  crisis  saved  in  all  respects  the  fortunes  of  the 
school,  and  turned  all  its  sons  into  the  most  loyal  of 


56  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Marlburians.  It  is  a  great  delight  to  me  to  have  been 
a  master  during  so  interesting  a  year." 

Old  pupils  still  living  recall  how  he  would  take  them 
for  long  walks  over  the  downs,  pouring  himself  out  in  a 
continuous  flood  of  vivid  talk  the  whole  time,  and  how 
he  would  entertain  them  to  tea  on  his  return,  and  the 
lavish  recklessness  with  which  he  shovelled  the  tea  out 
of  his  caddy  into  the  tea-pot. 

The  following  characteristic  sketch  by  Canon  Henry 
Bell,  a  pupil  of  my  father's  during  the  first  Marlborough 
period,  and  an  assistant  master  for  a  year  during  his  head- 
mastership,  gives  a  delightful  picture  of  this  epoch :  — 

"  Farrar  came  to  Marlborough  as  a  master  in  1854.  I 
was  one  of  his  first  pupils  in  — I  think  it  was  —  the 
Lower  Fifth.  We  were  taken  in  the  big  schoolroom 
with  eight  other  Forms.  I  quite  remember  how  his 
treatment  of  us  was  a  revelation.  His  whole  manner, 
his  kind  way  of  speaking  to  us,  was  something  we  had 
never  been  accustomed  to :  he  completely  won  our 
hearts,  and  there  was  nothing  we  would  not  have  done 
for  him.  The  old  regime  was  that  of  the  law,  — 1  Do 
this,  or  die';  'Know  your  Virgil,- — or,  Stand  round.' 
No  doubt  we  were  a  rough,  idle  lot  —  how  could  it  have 
been  otherwise  when  the  cane  was  the  only  incentive 
and  the  sole  civiliser  ?  To  have  a  kind  word  spoken  to 
one  was  a  thing  unheard  of,  undreamt  of  —  but  Far- 
rar came.  He  was  one  of  Cotton's  inspirations,  —  with 
him  Edward  Ashley  Scott,  and  '  Charley '  Bere,  as  we 
affectionately  called  him. 

"More  'inspirations'  joined  him  the  following  year, 
names  never  to  be  forgotten  for  all  time  for  all  they  did 
for  Marlborough,  —  Spencer  Beesly,1  Tomkinson,  Bull, 

1  Spencer  Beesly  was  already  at  Marlborough  when  my  father  joined 
the  staff. 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  57 


Jex  Blake,  Gilmore.  Well,  Farrar  came,  and  brought 
the  boys  who  were  in  his  Form  a  new  idea  of  life,  and 
the  conviction  that  we  were  made  for  something  better 
and  higher  than  to  be  caned  and  cuffed.  Till  Farrar 
came  we  did  our  verses  out  of  a  book,  —  I  hope  I  have 
forgotten  its  name  forever,  —  but  I  remember  it  opened 
with  a  sketch  of  an  exulting  horse  careering  over  a  plain, 
or  some  twaddle  of  that  kind.1  We  were  thoroughly- 
satisfied  with  it  —  we  knew  nothing  better ;  and  was 
there  not  a  convenient  crib !  Well,  Farrar  pitched  the 
book  into  the  fire,  and  gave  us  some  poetry  instead. 
Why,  most  of  us  had  hardly  heard  of  poetry  :  the  exult- 
ing horse  was  our  one  ideal  of  it.  Our  first  copy  was, '  Oh, 
call  my  brother  back  to  me,'  which  was  followed  up  by 
'Cophetua,'  'Ye  Mariners  of  England,'  and  many  another. 

"  I  remember  we  were  doing  in  Form  Horace's  Epistles, 
and  one  day  —  I  suppose  he  was  the  head  of  the  Form, 
I  certainly  was  not  —  there  came  a  letter  to  Fryer  — 
we  called  him  Friar  Tuck  —  asking  some  of  us  to  tea. 
I  wish  I  could  reproduce  the  humorous  words  in  which 
the  invitation  was  couched :  all  I  can  recall  about  it  is 
that  it  was  a  parody  on  one  of  the  Epistles,  of  the  Third 
Book  I  think,  which  we  had  been  doing  in  Form. 

"  Si  potes  archiacis  convive  recumbere  lectis  — 
Nec  modica  coenare  times  olus  omne  patella  — 
Supremo  te  sole  domi  Torquate  manebo. 

"  Such  an  event  as  tea  with  a  master  was  an  event  in- 
deed.   I  for  one  was  in  mortal  terror.    What  was  one 

aThe  lines  run  — 

The  fiery  steed,  his  tail  in  air  proudly  cocked, 
Not  without  much  neighing  traverses  glad  pastures. 
As  my  father  said  of  it  in  his  Royal  Institution  Lecture,  "This  is  the 
sort  of  kelp  and  brick-dust  used  to  polish  the  cogs  of  their  mental  ma- 
chinery." 


58  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


to  say  ?  —  how  comport  oneself  ?  I  almost  wished  my 
name  had  been  left  out  of  the  invitation.  But  the  mo- 
ment we  got  into  the  room  he  shook  hands  with  us, 
welcomed  us,  and  in  two  minutes  we  were  at  ease  and 
at  home  with  him,  as  he  plied  us  with  jam  and  cake,  and 
chaffed  us  in  his  own  genial  way.  I  remember  he  es- 
pecially chaffed  me  about  cricket :  '  What  fun  can  you 
see  in  trundling  a  piece  of  leather  at  three  bits  of 
stick  ! '  He  was  with  us  in  the  Fifth  only  a  very  short 
time,  but  I  look  back  to  it  as  the  time  when  my  friend- 
ship with  Farrar  began  which  lasted  till  his  death. 

"  Of  course  his  place  was  with  the  Sixth.  I  can  recall 
a  whole  holiday  when  he  took  the  members  of  the  Sixth 
in  a  Brake  to  Stonehenge,  and  I  was  invited  to  join  them. 
Philistine  as  I  was,  I  persuaded  them  to  take  a  football. 
I'm  afraid  Stonehenge  in  itself  had  but  little  interest  for 
me.  On  our  arrival  I  remember  being  taken  to  gaze  on 
the  huge  stones,  and  being  terribly  bored  and  only  too 
glad  when  the  lecture  was  over  and  one  could  get  the 
football  out.  I  remember  how  we  chose  sides  and  Far- 
rar joined  in  the  game  and  enjoyed  it  as  much  as  we 
did.  But  what  ruffians  he  must  have  thought  us ! 
What  a  bathos  !  Football  and  the  Druids  ! 

"  Farrar  was  never  what  you  may  call  a  game  lover,  but 
he  knew  that  he  could  get  hold  of  fellows  best  by  join- 
ing with  them  in  their  games;  so  when  he  came  he  took 
to  fives  and  was  soon  no  mean  hand,  and  to  football,  in 
which  he  could  perhaps  never  have  excelled,  but  which 
he  played  with  an  energy  which  many  of  us  of  that  day 
well  remember. 

"Too  soon,  alas !  Harrow  stole  him  from  us  and  kept 
him  till  1 87 1,  when  he  returned  to  us  as  head  master. 
It  was  my  privilege  to  work  under  him  for  a  year,  only 
too  short  a  period,  but  long  enough  to  show  me  how  his 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  59 


whole  heart  and  soul  was  bent  on  doing  his  best  for  every 
boy  in  the  school  to  make  his  school  days  bright  and 
happy.  He  loved  Marlborough  always  with  the  intens- 
est  love,  and  never  spared  himself  for  her.  Well,  I  will 
only  add  that  I  feel  an  affection  for  Farrar,  and  retain 
a  memory  of  his  very  many  kindnesses  which  will  always 
last.  He  had  a  peculiarly  lovable  nature,  which  could 
not  fail  to  attract.  The  world  is  indeed  poorer  for  his 
death.  H.  B." 


Of  his  work  at  this  period  Dr.  Cotton  wrote :  "  I 
never  knew  any  one  who  had  a  greater  power  of  stimu- 
lating intellectual  exertion  and  literary  taste.  The  im- 
pulse which  he  imparted  to  my  sixth  form  was  quite 
extraordinary.  When  boys  first  joined  it  they  seemed 
in  a  very  short  time  to  be  imbued  by  him  with  a  new 
intellectual  life  and  a  real  desire  of  knowledge  and  im- 
provement for  their  own  sakes." 

The  following  is  the  story  of  his  ordination  and  of 
his  first  sermon  :  — 

"  As  soon  as  I  was  old  enough  to  be  ordained,  I  sent 
my  name  as  a  candidate  to  the  then  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
Dr.  Walter  Ker  Hamilton,  asking  him  to  ordain  me  on 
my  mastership  to  help  in  the  clerical  work  of  the  school. 
My  name  was  at  once  accepted,  and  I  had  just  time  to 
get  to  Salisbury  for  the  ordination  examination  on  the 
day  that  the  school  broke  up. 

"  The  only  way  of  getting  to  Salisbury  in  time  was  by 
taking  a  coach  which  passed  through  Marlborough  at 
three  at  night.  Accordingly,  I  got  the  college  watch- 
man to  awake  me  ;  and  then  I  was  absolutely  insane 
enough,  on  a  night  in  late  December,  to  take  a  seat  out- 
side the  coach  with  no  rug  and  no  great-coat !  It  was 
a  night  of  keen  frost,  and  I  wonder  that  the  night  drive 


6o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


did  not  kill  me.  I  was  congealed  to  the  very  bone,  and 
when  we  got  to  Salisbury  I  felt  very  ill.  Fortunately, 
however,  I  was  young,  and  my  health  was  very  strong ; 
and  although  everybody  noticed  how  ghastly  I  looked 
when  I  entered  the  Bishop's  Hall  for  examination,  I 
escaped  with  nothing  worse  than  a  bad  cold. 

"I  was  ordained  on  Christmas  Day,  1853,  and  I  was 
appointed  to  read  the  Gospel  in  the  Cathedral.  On  the 
morning  of  that  day  one  of  the  Salisbury  clergy  wrote 
and  asked  me  to  take  a  service  and  to  preach  for  him  at 
the  workhouse  in  the  afternoon.  He  said  that  of  course 
I  could  not  write  a  sermon  at  such  short  notice,  espe- 
cially as  the  whole  morning  was  broken  up  with  the 
long  ordination  service ;  but  he  sent  me  a  volume  of 
the  '  Church  Homilies,'  and  advised  me  to  preach  the 
Homily  for  Christmas  Day.  I  felt  a  dislike,  however, 
to  take  a  book  with  me  and  read  a  Homily  which  I  did 
not  know  very  well,  and  which  would  necessarily  sound 
a  little  archaic.  I  therefore  snatched  what  brief  leisure 
I  could,  and  sat  down  to  write  at  least  a  sermonet.  My 
text  was  naturally  the  angels'  song,  and  I  think  a  poorer 
little  sermon  could  rarely  have  been  preached.  It  was 
an  attempt  to  show  what  the  world  might  have  been  if 
man  had  never  fallen ;  what  the  world  would  be  once 
more  when  God  was  all  in  all ;  and  how  we  might  per- 
sonally attain  this  blessedness  by  faith  in  Him  who  for 
us  men  and  for  our  salvation  had  taken  our  nature  upon 
Him.  I  remember  the  scene  now :  my  walk  to  Salis- 
bury Infirmary ;  the  gathering  of  poor  feeble  old  men 
and  women  in  the  bare  and  miserable  chapel ;  the  ill- 
equipped  and  unprepared  young  deacon,  a  few  hours 
old  in  the  ministry,  who  had  to  read  and  preach  to  them  ; 
the  vacant  gaze  of  the  old  women,  and  the  stony  stare 
of  the  old  men  as  they  listened  to  a  sermon  of  a  style 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  61 


somewhat  academic,  and  wholly  unsuited  to  them ;  the 
fact  that  one  at  least,  and  I  think  several,  unceremoni- 
ously got  up  in  the  middle  and  walked  out,  which  under 
the  circumstances  was  very  excusable.  And  yet  that 
wretched  little  sermon,  which  I  believe  exists  somewhere, 
but  at  which  I  certainly  could  not  look  without  a  shudder, 
contained  one  lovely  passage  which  (as  I  faithfully  ex- 
plained) was  not  my  own.  It  was  the  beautiful  close  of 
the  Christmas  Day  Homily,  and  is,  I  think,  the  most 
beautiful  passage  in  all  the  Homilies.  It  runs  as  follows : 
'  Therefore,  dearly  beloved,  let  us  not  forget  this  ex- 
ceeding love  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  Let  us  confess 
Him  with  our  mouths,  praise  Him  with  our  tongues,  be- 
lieve on  Him  with  our  hearts,  and  glorify  Him  with  our 
good  works.  Christ  is  the  Light;  let  us  reveal  the 
Light.  Christ  is  the  Truth ;  let  us  believe  the  Truth. 
Christ  is  the  Way ;  let  us  follow  the  Way.  And  because 
He  is  our  only  Master,  our  only  Teacher,  our  only  Shep- 
herd and  Chief  Captain,  let  us  become  His  scholars, 
His  soldiers,  His  sheep,  His  servants.  .  .  .  Let  us  re- 
ceive Christ  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever;  let  us  believe 
His  word  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever ;  let  us  become 
His  servants  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever,  considering 
that  He  hath  redeemed  us  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever, 
and  will  receive  us  into  His  heavenly  kingdom,  then, 
to  reign  with  Him,  not  for  a  time,  but  for  ever.' 1 

"  Such  was  my  first  sermon,  preached  in  a  country 
workhouse,  and  a  dead  failure,  I  should  imagine,  if  ever 
there  was  one.    Why,  it  may  be  asked,  did  I  not  take 

1  My  collateral  ancestor,  Robert  Farrar,  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  burnt  for 
the  Protestant  faith  at  Carmarthen  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  was  a 
chaplain  of  Cranmer's,  and  is  known  to  have  had  some  share  in  the 
Homilies.  I  try  to  persuade  myself  that  he  wrote  this  homily,  and  so  lent 
me  the  only  good  part  of  my  first  sermon. — Note  by  Dean  Farrar. 


62  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


what  would  have  been  the  natural  and  much  more  effec- 
tive course,  and  speak  to  the  poor  people  a  few  words 
extempore  ?  Often  and  often  since  I  have  preached 
extempore  to  poor  haymakers  in  a  barn,  and  to  great 
congregations  in  cathedrals  and  elsewhere,  and  prob- 
ably, with  a  little  training,  it  would  have  come  even 
more  easy  to  me  to  preach  without  a  manuscript  than 
with  one.  But  I  had  never  had  one-quarter  of  a  min- 
ute's training  or  advice  about  either  reading  or  preach- 
ing, and  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  could  preach 
without  book.  The  chief  thing  that  strikes  me  as  I  look 
back  across  the  vista  of  nearly  forty  years,  is  how  sad 
was  the  neglect  of  that  ordinary  training,  which  might 
have  made  so  many  of  us  more  effective,  who  belong 
to  the  generation  which  is  passing  away ;  how  much  we 
might  have  gained  if  we  had  even  been  vouchsafed  a 
little  practice  in  the  art  of  reading.  How  much  our  con- 
gregations might  have  been  saved  if  the  elementary 
rules  of  elocution  had  ever  been  explained  to  us,  and, 
above  all,  if  some  little  instruction  had  been  imparted  to 
us  about  those  things  which  constitute  the  faults  or  the 
merits  of  sermons.  .  .  .  But  we  of  earlier  date  were 
left  to  stumble  on  our  way  as  best  we  could.  .  .  ." 

The  following  extract  from  a  private  letter  gives  an 
interesting  little  vignette  of  the  young  master  as  he 
appeared  to  another  of  his  pupils  :  — 

"  F.  W.  F.  came  to  Marlborough  like  an  apparition  — 
a  flame  of  fire  —  kindling  enthusiasm  for  all  that  was 
noble  and  chivalrous.  No  one  ever  was  so  young  as  he 
was  in  those  days,  and  I  suppose  he  was  then  twenty- 
three  or  twenty-four ;  but  the  marvel  was,  how  he  knew 
such  a  l®t  and  associated  himself  with  us  little  fellows, 
as  if  we  could  minister  to  his  happiness.  I  learnt  much 
from  him  which  has  made  my  life  a  happy  one.  .  .  . 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  63 


He  played  football  (Rugby)  like  a  madman,  running 
amuck  with  his  eyes  shut,  and  got  awfully  mauled, 
latissima  pulvere  farm,  as  some  fellows  said,  much  to 
his  delight.  We  were  reading  the  '  Georgics '  at  the 
time." 

I  give  here  an  extract  from  my  father's  sermon,  on 
"The  History  and  Hopes  of  a  Public  School,"  one  of 
the  series  of  sermons  preached  at  Marlborough  during 
his  head-mastership,  and  collected  in  the  volume,  "  In 
the  Days  of  Thy  Youth  "  :  — 

"On  August  25,  1843,  the  first  Marlburians  walked 
with  considering  footsteps  about  the  place  which  was  to 
be  the  new  home  of  their  boyhood,  and  to  which,  as  time 
passed  on,  some  of  their  sons  were  to  follow  them.  Some 
of  you  who  sit  on  these  benches  to-day  are  sons  of  some 
of  those  two  hundred  who,  thirty-one  years  ago,  first 
entered  this  place  as  Marlborough  boys ;  and  of  their 
traditions,  of  their  influences,  of  their  characters,  of  the 
motives  brought  to  bear  upon  them,  of  the  manner  in 
which  they  yielded  to  those  motives,  so  far-reaching 
are  the  pulsations  of  our  moral  life,  all  of  you  are  the 
heirs.  The  sound  of  their  boyish  laughter,  the  echo  of 
their  happy  voices,  has  died  away,  and  many  of  them 
have  passed  away  from  the  life  of  earth.  In  a  body  so 
large  as  this,  many  die  as  the  years  pass  on.  I  remem- 
ber the  first  boy  who  ever  entered  my  room  as  a  pupil 
here  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  He  lies  now  under  the 
deep  sea  wave.  I  remember  the  first  head  of  my  form 
here — that  memorial  window  records  his  character.  Yes, 
we  die ;  but  not  the  effect  of  our  deeds.   All  other  sounds 

"  Die  in  yon  rich  sky, 
They  faint  on  hill,  on  field  or  river  ; 
Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul, 
And  live  for  ever  and  for  ever. 


64  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  If  you  be  living  weak,  miserable,  effeminate  lives, 
then  let  it  be  a  warning  and  an  awful  thought ;  if  you 
are  living  true,  manly,  righteous  lives,  let  it  be  an  en- 
nobling, an  inspiring  thought,  that  your  lives  too  will 
live,  in  their  moral  echoes,  for  coming  generations  of 
Marlborough  boys. 

"  The  college  then  was  founded,  and  they  who  had 
laboured  and  given  their  substance  for  it  won  thereby 
a  grace  and  a  blessing  which  nothing  else  could  have 
given  them. 

"  But  how  did  their  work  prosper  ?  At  first  not  well. 
Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  in  those  days  it  was  a  great 
and  wholly  new  experiment ;  and  some  hundreds  of 
boys  — all  strangers  to  one  another,  collected  in  one  build- 
ing, without  a  past,  without  unity,  without  traditions, 
—  fell  at  first  into  many  rough  and  discreditable  ways, 
which  seemed  likely  at  one  time  to  make  the  name 
of  Marlburian  a  byword  and  a  hissing.  It  must  have 
been  a  bitter  thing  for  those  who  then  worked  for  our 
school  to  bear ;  but  they  who  sow  faithfully,  though  it 
be  in  tears,  shall  reap  in  joy.  Yes,  ' laborare  et  orare' 
were  (as  in  one  way  or  other  they  always  are)  success- 
ful, and  the  first  master  of  Marlborough 1  has  lived  to  see 
that  he  was  doing  a  work  which,  though  different  from 
that  achieved  by  others,  has  yet  been  granted  to  few. 
For  to  those  days  of  trial,  and  greatly  to  his  work,  we 
owe  that  organisation  which  has  since  been  imitated  in 
its  minutest  particulars  by  later  schools.  And  what  was 
still  wanting,  it  was  granted  to  his  successor  to  achieve. 
It  is  something  for  every  Marlborough  boy  to  know  that 
when  he  looks  at  that  portrait  of  Bishop  Cotton  which 


1  Dr.  Wilkinson. 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  65 


adorns  our  hall,  he  is  looking  at  the  likeness  of  one  of 
the  best  men  whom  this  generation  has  produced.  It 
was  God's  special  blessing  to  a  new  school  that  sent  him 
here.  He  was  not  great  as  the  world  counts  greatness. 
When  he  came  here  he  was  but  little  known  beyond  a 
narrow  circle  of  attached  friends.  Nor  was  it  at  once 
either  in  numbers,  or  in  intellectual  successes,  or  in  im- 
proved finances,  that  Marlborough  began  to  flourish. 
Yet  undoubtedly  it  was  Bishop  Cotton  who  saved  the 
school.  He  was  here  but  six  years ;  and  great  as  was 
his  work  as  Bishop  of  Calcutta  and  Metropolitan  of 
India,  before  that  disastrous  fall  into  the  waters  of  the 
Indian  river  after  which  he  was  seen  no  more,  it  is  yet 
with  this  place  that  his  name  will  be  most  identified. 
It  was  my  own  deep  happiness  in  those  days  to  know 
him,  to  love  him,  to  work  with  him,  and  in  daily  walks 
and  intercourse  with  him,  as  afterward  by  letters,  until 
he  died,  to  learn  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  And 
how  did  he  save  Marlborough  when  it  might  any  day 
»  have  disappeared,  unhonoured  and  unregretted,  from 
its  place  among  the  public  schools  of  England  ?  My 
brethren,  it  is  well  for  you  to  know ;  it  is  a  valuable 
lesson  for  any  one  to  know :  it  was  not  by  the  genius 
of  the  thinker ;  it  was  not  by  the  brilliancy  of  the 
scholar;  it  was  not  by  that  burning  enthusiasm  and 
personal  ascendency  with  which  Arnold  of  Rugby  had 
done  his  work.  Such  gifts  were  not  his ;  but  it  was  by 
those  fruits  of  the  Spirit  which  are  in  the  reach  of  all 
and  by  that  heavenly  grace  which  is  given  in  even  larger 
measure  to  them  that  seek  it.  A  calm  hopefulness,  a 
cheerful  simplicity,  an  exquisite  equanimity  of  temper, 
a  humility  which  made  him  a  learner  to  the  very  end, 
a  genuine,  self-denying  love  for  Marlborough,  and  for 
those  boys  whom  God  had  here  intrusted  to  his  charge 


66  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


—  these  were  what  gave  to  his  life  that  mysterious  power 
which  is  always  granted  to  the  unselfish  purpose  and  the 
single  eye.  And  this  was  the  type  of  character  —  God 
grant  that  it  may  long  be  stamped  upon  some  of  the 
sons  whom  this  school  shall  train  !  — which  he  produced 
among  his  pupils  and  his  colleagues.  I  shall  never  for- 
get the  spectacle  which  the  Marlborough  of  that  day 
presented.  Something  was  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  a  day  of  adversity,  which  often  brings  out  all 
that  is  noblest  and  sweetest  in  human  lives.  But  cer- 
tainly the  few  here  present  who  remember  that  time  will 
bear  me  witness  that  it  taught  us  all  a  priceless  lesson. 
We  all  felt  that  it  was  a  struggle,  first,  whether  Marl- 
borough College  should  live  at  all,  next,  whether  it 
should  live  in  honour  or  obscurity.  We  won  no  great 
successes ;  we  were  beaten  in  every  game ;  there  was 
much  that  was  mean  in  our  surroundings ;  much  that 
was  trying  in  our  arrangements ;  much  that  was  still 
coarse  and  rough  and  unintellectual  in  the  habits  of  the 
place.  And  yet  how  we  all  loved  it !  How  boys  and 
masters  alike  worked  for  it !  What  a  pride  they  felt, 
even  in  its  humility  !  What  a  thrill  of  delight  we  all  felt 
when  one  succeeded  !  How  ready  they  were,  some  of 
them,  even  to  the  permanent  surrender  of  better  pros- 
pects to  serve  Marlborough  and  work  for  her.  And 
verily  they  have  their  reward ;  they  have  their  reward, 
that  is,  if  the  highest  price  which  life  can  offer  is  clearly 
to  see  what  is  best,  and  resolutely  to  do  it.  And  is  there 
anything  better  than  this  ?  Life  is  not  the  mere  living. 
It  is  worship ;  it  is  the  surrender  of  the  soul  to  God, 
and  the  power  to  see  the  face  of  God  ;  and  it  is  service  ; 
it  is  to  feel  that  when  we  "die,  whether  praised  or 
blamed,  whether  appreciated  or  misinterpreted,  whether 
honoured  or  ignored,  whether  wealthy  or  destitute, 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  67 


we  have  done  something  to  make  the  world  we  came  to 
better  and  happier ;  we  have  tried  to  cast  upon  the 
water  some  seeds  which  long  after  we  are  dead  may 
still  bring  forth  their  flowers  of  Paradise." 

The  following  lines  were  composed  as  he  returned 
from  Dr.  Wilkinson's  funeral :  — 


IN  MEMORIAM  M.  M.  WILKINSON,  D.D. 
First  Master  of  Marlborough  College.  Died  March  4, 1876. 

Aye,  they  are  o'er,  his  pain  and  his  endeavour, 
Our  scant  acknowledgment,  and  frequent  wrong; 

Hushed  are  all  tones  of  praise  or  blame  forever, 
For  those  who  listen  to  the  angel's  song. 

He  sowed  the  seed  with  sorrow  and  with  weeping, 
Barely  he  saw  green  blade  or  tender  leaves ; 

Yet  in  meek  faith,  unenvious  of  the  reaping, 

Blessed  the  glad  gatherers  of  the  golden  sheaves. 

But  we,  when  reapers  unto  reapers  calling. 
Tell  the  rich  harvest  of  the  grain  they  bring, 

Shall  we  forget  how  snow  and  sleet  were  falling 
On  those  tired  toilers  of  the  bitter  spring  ? 

And  yet  of  him  nor  word  nor  line  remaineth, 
Picture  nor  bust,  his  work  and  worth  to  tell ; 

And  though  not  he  nor  any  friend  complaineth, 
We  ask  in  sadness,  — "  Marlborough,  is  it  well?" 

Enough  !  he  murmured  not, —  in  earthly  races 

To  winners  only  do  the  heralds  call ; 
But  oh  !  in  yonder  high  and  holy  places 

Success  is  nothing,  and  the  work  is  all. 

So  —  since  ye  will  it  —  here  be  unrecorded 
The  work  he  fashioned  and  the  path  he  trod ; 

Here,  but  in  heaven  each  kind  heart  is  rewarded, 
Each  true  name  written  in  the  books  of  God. 

F.  W.  F. 


68 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


To  his  first  Marlborough  period  belongs  this  hymn, 
which  is  printed  in  the  Marlborough  College  hymn- 
book  :  — 

Father!  before  Thy  throne  of  light 

The  guardian  angels  bend, 
And  ever  in  Thy  presence  bright 

Their  psalms  adoring  blend, 
And  casting  down  each  golden  crown 

Beside  the  crystal  sea, 
With  voice  and  lyre  in  happy  quire 

Hymn  glory,  Lord,  to  Thee. 

And  as  the  rainbow  lustre  falls 

Athwart  their  glowing  wings, 
While  seraph  unto  seraph  calls, 

And  each  thy  goodness  sings ; 
So  may  we  fall,  as  low  we  kneel 

To  thank  Thee  for  thy  grace 
That  Thou  art  here,  for  all  who  fear 

The  brightness  of  Thy  face. 

Here,  when  the  angels  see  us  come 

To  worship  day  by  day, 
Teach  us  to  feel  our  heavenly  home 

And  love  Thee,  e'en  as  they : 
Teach  us  to  raise  our  songs  of  praise, 

Like  them,  Thy  love  to  own, 
That  boyhood's  time  and  manhood's  prime 

Be  Thine,  and  Thine  alone. 

Two  letters  to  his  friend,  Professor  E.  S.  Beesly  may 
be  inserted  here :  — 

"Trinity  College,  August  16. 

"  My  dear  Beesly  :  I  have  many  friends  at  M. 
[Marlborough]  to  whom  I  would  gladly  write,  both 
among  boys  and  masters,  but  no  one  has  an  earlier  or 
better  claim  than  you.  I  must,  however,  write  chiefly 
on  business. 

******* 


ASSISTANT  MASTER  AT  MARLBOROUGH  69 


"  Will  you  also  tell  Turner  and  Ilbert  to  go  to  Fleuss 
and  get  their  likeness  well  finished  by  September,  in  order 
that  I  may  take  it  with  me  if  I  come  down.  I  should 
like  to  have  Warren's  phiz  very  much,  and  also  Han- 
bury's  together  ;  but  I  don't  know  whether  Fleuss's  like- 
nesses are  good  enough  to  make  it  worth  while  to  have  . 
another  picture  as  a  pendant  to  the  Iiberto-Turner. 

■3(6-  ¥fc  ^  ^  ■iff 

"  I  am  trying  to  read  for  a  fellowship,  but  despairingly 
and  under  great  disadvantages.  I  shall  leave  in  about 
ten  days  for  Harrow  to  see  about  furniture,  and  get 
taken  in. 

"  Tell  Bull  I  travelled  up  to  Cambridge  with  his  minute 
nephew,  who  did  not  cry  once,  and  showed  a  temper 
most  angelic  for  a  baby !  Though  Bull  and  I  used 
intellectually  to  drive  each  other  into  corners,  I  hope, 
in  spite  of  our  skirmishes,  that  he  will  not  forget  a 
coadjutor  who  will  always  remember  him  with  mingled 
gratitude,  friendship,  and  respect. 

"  I  hope  Scott  is  in  more  vigorous  health  ;  please  give 
him  my  love,  and  also  remember  me  to  all  friends.  I 
shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  you.  You  can't  think 
how  painful  I  felt  it  to  leave  M.  A  tear  starts  while  I 
think  of  it — -not  the  place  or  the  position,  but  those 
whom  I  loved  there  more  fondly  than  I  knew,  and  who 
will  already  have  well-nigh  forgotten  my  existence.  I 
met  Ilbert  in  London  and  hardly  spoke  to  him. 

"  Excuse  my  folly,  and  believe  me  ever 

"  Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

"Colehill,  January  25. 
"  My  dear  Beesly  :  I  am  sorry  to  hear  of  your  in- 
tended attempt  at  Brazenose,  because  if  you  try  you  are 


70  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


pretty  sure  to  succeed,  I  suppose,  and  then  we  shall  lose 
you,  which  will  be  a  loss  to  all  of  us,  but  peculiarly  to 
me,  for  I  have  little  real  society  among  the  masters. 
******* 

Still  it  will,  I  suppose,  assist  your  prospects,  and  so  I 
heartily  hope  you  success  on  this  ground.  At  the 
Union  I  hope  you  will  make  a  brilliant  and  effective 
display,  but  take  care  and  don't  compromise  yourself 
by  too  violent  language.  It  does  no  sort  of  harm  to 
adopt  a  conciliatory  tone  for  expressing  the  most  uncom- 
promising arguments. 

"  I  passed  the  ordination  examination  with  flying 
colours,  and  was  first  in  it,  and  so  had  to  read  the  Gospel 
in  the  Cathedral,  which  I  did  with  the  completest  self- 
possession,  greatly  to  the  astonishment  of  the  rest.  The 
Bishop  complimented  me  peculiarly  on  my  doctrine, 
though  I  expressed  my  opinions  quite  unshrinkingly. 
I  had  to  preach  and  take  a  full  service  next  day  in  Salis- 
bury at  very  short  notice,  and  have  since  been  assisting 
my  father,  and  it  is  the  general  opinion  of  the  drapers 
and  grocers  here  that  I  am  'a  promising  young  man.' 

"  I  have  done  next  to  nothing,  owing  to  the  greatest 
interruptions.  I  have  heard  from  Theobald  and  the 
darling  'iXfiepri'Siov,  and  many  Upper  VI  fellows,  but 
only  from  two  Lower.  I  was  disgusted  at  the  way  they 
did.  Cobb  got  a  quadruple  first  only  through  super- 
human diligence,  and  they  all  might  have  done  the  same; 
but  though  they  worked  hard,  it  was  not  hard  enough 
for  their  dull  and  sluggish  capacities. 

"  A  brother  of  Hawkins,  the  senior  classic  of  my  year, 
is  coming  into  the  Lower  to  be  under  me,  by  his  brother's 
advice.    Wishing  you  heartily  all  happiness,  I  remain, 
"  Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 


CHAPTER  VI 


HARROW  DAYS 

Toward  the  close  of  1855  my  father  was  appointed  by 
Dr.  Vaughan,  who  remained  to  the  close  of  his  life  one 
of  his  most  affectionate  friends,  an  assistant  master  at 
Harrow.  Here  he  remained  for  fifteen  years,  —  years 
filled  not  only  by  a  strenuous  devotion  to  his  magisterial 
duties,  which  won  for  him  the  grateful  and  loyal  affection 
of  successive  generations  of  Harrovians,  but  by  many 
and  varied  activities  outside  the  routine  of  school,  which 
brought  him  into  wider  prominence. 

In  1858  he  may  be  said  to  have  begun  his  public 
career  as  an  author  with  "  Eric,  or  Little  by  Little," 
published  by  request,  and  founded  on  reminiscences, 
partly  autobiographical,  of  his  old  school  in  the  Isle  of 
Man.  This  was  followed  in  1859  by  "Julian  Home,"  a 
tale  of  college  life,  of  which  the  local  colour  is  derived 
from  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  "  St.  Winifred's,  or  the 
World  of  School,"  was  not  published  till  1865.  "The 
Three  Homes"  was  originally  published  under  the  pseu- 
donym F.  T.  L.  Hope  (derived  from  Tennyson's  "  faintly 
trust  the  larger  hope")  and  the  authorship  of  the  book 
was  not  publicly  claimed  till  1896.  It  first  appeared  as 
a  serial  in  the  Qtiiver,  and  since  its  publication  in  book 
form  more  than  thirty  thousand  copies  have  been  sold. 

This  seems  the  proper  place  to  attempt  a  critical  esti- 
mate of  my  father's  work  as  a  writer  of  schoolboy  fiction. 
It  would  be  idle  to  blink  the  fact  that  these  books  have 
been  exposed  to  much  hostile  criticism,  and  in  particular 

71 


72  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  Eric,"  the  most  popular  and  the  most  characteristic  of 
the  series,  alike  in  its  real  beauties  and  noble  moral  les- 
sons, and  by  reason  of  some  defects  which  lay  it  open  to 
cheap  criticism. 

No  journalist,  writing  of  Farrar's  work,  considers  that 
he  has  done  his  duty  by  the  public  till  he  has  duly  insti- 
tuted a  comparison  between  "Eric"  and  "Tom  Brown," 
to  the  disparagement  of  the  former.  For  the  discerning 
critic  these  books,  each  admirable  in  its  own  genre,  no 
more  challenge  comparison  than  do  the  works  of  Fra 
Angelico  and  Frith. 

"  Tom  Brown's  School  Days"  is  the  work  of  a  realist, 
and  no  book  more  true  to  the  life  of  the  schoolboy  has 
been,  or  is  likely  to  be,  written.  It  gives  an  incompara- 
ble picture  of  the  average  public-school  boy,  —  healthy, 
athletic,  chock-full  of  animal  spirits,  morally  sound  at  the 
core,  common-sense,  if  also  commonplace.  We  recognise 
the  portrait  as  drawn  by  a  master-hand.  We  get  noth- 
ing but  good  by  reading  the  book ;  yet  healthy  and  ex- 
cellent as  is  its  tone,  we  are  not  profoundly  touched  to 
finer  issues  by  it. 

Again,  the  genius  of  Rudyard  Kipling  has  given  us 
in  "  Stalky  &  Co."  a  lively  and  amusing  presentment 
of  one  side,  the  slangy  side,  of  schoolboy  life.  Those 
who  do  not  know  the  schoolboy,  not  seldom  find  the 
ruse  Stalky  detestable ;  but  for  all  his  cynicism  the  young 
scamp  is  sound  at  heart,  and  his  moral  ideals,  so  stoically 
veiled,  are  not  ignoble.  He  is  such  a  humorous  rascal 
that  I  almost  forgive  even  his  jeers  at  Eric.  But  no 
high  moral  purpose  underlies  these  sketches.  We  enjoy 
them,  but  are  neither  better  or  worse  for  them. 

"Eric"  and  "St.  Winifred's"  are  of  a  wholly  different 
strain,  and  no  one  of  enlightened  literary  judgment 
would  attempt  to  compare  them  with  the  above.  They 


HARROW  DAYS 


73 


are  the  work  of  an  idealist,  and  of  one  who  never  wrote 
without  a  definite  moral  purpose.  If,  Reader,  you  dislike 
idealism,  and  cannot  tolerate  books  written  "  with  a  pur- 
pose,"—  cadit  qucestio,  —  "Eric"  and  "St.  Winifred's" 
are  not  for  you.  No  cynic,  and  no  mere  worldling-,  was 
ever  wholly  in  sympathy  with  Farrar's  work ;  and  the 
clever  modern  public-school  boy  is  but  too  often  an  ama- 
teur of  cynicism,  whose  motto  is  Surtout  point  de  zkle. 
He  detests  emotion,  sneers  at  it  in  others,  and  stoically 
suppresses  it  in  himself. 

"  The  boys  of  '  Eric '  and  '  St.  Winifred's  '  are  not  real 
boys  like  Tom  Brown,"  says  the  youthful  cynic  of  to- 
day, "  but  young  prigs  who  are  always  '  high-falutin ' 
and  spouting  poetry."  He  does  not  spout  poetry  —  not 
he.  Well,  —  perhaps  they  are  not  convincingly  real 
boys,  any  more  than  the  characters  of  Dickens  are  real 
persons.  Their  virtues,  and  even  their  vices,  are  ideal- 
ised, but  the  heroes  are  such  boys  as  Farrar  was  him- 
self, and,  be  it  remembered,  "  Eric  "  was  written  from 
reminiscences  of  a  school  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  of  an 
epoch  where  alike  the  virtues  and  the  vices  of  boys  were 
more  primitive  and  less  sophisticated,  than  is  the  case 
in  our  large  modern  public  schools  of  this  generation. 
"St.  Winifred's,"  which  came  six  years  later,  and  was  in- 
fluenced by  both  Marlborough  and  Harrow  experiences, 
though  it  has  had  less  effect,  perhaps,  than  "  Eric,"  is 
truer  to  the  real  life  of  boys,  and  has  been  far  less  open 
to  criticism.  Judged  by  the  mere  vulgar  standard  of 
sales,  the  success  of  these  two  books  has  been  phe- 
nomenal. "  Eric  "  has  gone  through  more  than  fifty 
editions,  but  the  inner  history  of  the  book  will  never  be 
fully  given  to  the  world.  I  dare  venture  to  say  that 
few  boys,  however  much  they  may  sneer  at  it  in  after 
years,  have  read  "  Eric  "  for  the  first  time  without  tears 


74  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


coming  to  their  eyes ;  but  the  number  of  simple-hearted 
lads  who  have  been  profoundly  touched  and  uplifted  by 
this  book,  and  of  those  who  have  been  turned  from  evil 
courses  and  moved  to  sincere  repentance  by  it,  will 
never  be  fully  known. 

Hardly  a  week  ever  passed  since  "  Eric  "  was  first 
published  without  my  father  receiving  from  all  parts 
of  the  English-speaking  world  —  from  India,  from  the 
colonies,  and  from  America  —  letters  from  earnest  men 
who  were  not  ashamed  to  write  and  confess  with  grati- 
tude that  the  reading  of  "  Eric  "  had  marked  a  turning- 
point  in  their  lives,  and  that  its  lessons  had  been  with 
them  an  abiding  influence  for  good. 

Some  of  these  letters,  too  sacred  and  too  intimate  for 
print,  have  been  preserved,  and  are  an  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  far-reaching  power  with  the  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart  of  this  much-criticised  little  book,  a 
power  that  will  survive  the  sarcastic  comments  of  the 
Press,  and  even  the  sneers  of  Stalky  &  Co. 

Of  all  the  tributes  to  "  Eric  "  none  is  more  moving 
than  that  paid  by  the  great  Dr.  Magee,  who  was  at  that 
time  Bishop  of  Peterborough.  In  consequence  of  the 
Bishop's  dictum  that  "  it  would  be  better  that  England 
should  be  free  than  that  England  should  be  compul- 
sorily  sober,"  a  sharp  and  somewhat  bitter  controversy 
had  arisen  between  my  father  and  the  Bishop.  When 
in  1883  the  latter  lay  upon  what  he  himself  and  others 
thought  to  be  his  dying  bed,  he  wrote  to  my  father  and 
in  words  of  touching  dignity,  and  of  peculiar  pathos  as 
coming  from  so  proud  a  man,  expressed  his  sorrow  for 
all  that  had  beclouded  their  friendship,  and  went  on  to 
thank  him  for  having  written  "  Eric,"  of  which  he  said, 
"  It  has  been  the  salvation  of  my  son.  You  should  have 
known  this  earlier  but  for  the  demon  of  pride." 


HARROW  DAYS 


75 


I  insert  here  a  few  letters,1  referring  to  "  Eric  "  and  his 
other  works  of  schoolboy  fiction.  The  first  three  are 
from  my  father  to  his  friend  E.  S.  Beesly.  The  remain- 
der are  specimens  of  letters  he  was  constantly  receiving 
from  readers  of  those  books. 

"  Harrow,  November  16. 

"  My  dear  Beesly  :  I  fear  I  forgot  to  write  your 
name  in  the  '  Eric '  I  sent  you,  a  neglect  which  I  will 
supply  hereafter.  I  hear  that  it  is  selling  rapidly  and 
that  a  second  edition  is  likely  to  be  soon  required.  I 
know  the  Saturday  Wasp  only  too  well  personally,  but  I 
won't  mention  names.  His  unchristian  tone  will  do  the 
book  no  harm,  except  that  little  fools  here  have  read  it 
and  think  him  an  oracle. 

"  The  lacrimosity  is,  I  know,  too  much,  and  arises  from 
the  state  of  mind  in  which  I  wrote  it.    I  really  never 

thought  of  B  ,  who  will  probably  never  see  or  hear 

of  the  book,  or  N  neither.     Montagu  and  Owen 

are  Harrow  boys;  the  latter  mentally  developed  and 
made  to  act  as  he  would  do  if  he  were  ever  in  such  cir- 
cumstances.   Wildney  is  a  little  boy  named  W  who 

was  really  introduced  to  me  as  '  a  very  nice  little  fel- 
low—  a  regular  devil.'  He  brutalised  himself  by  drink, 
was  expelled,  and  went  to  sea. 

"  I  had  absolutely  and  totally  forgotten  young  H  

as  much  as  if  he  never  existed,  and  it  was  only  by  an  effort 
of  memory  that  I  now  recalled  him.  You  remember 
infinitely  more  than  me.  Russell,  too,  is  a  Harrovian. 
Wildney  and  Duncan  are  the  favourites  here  :  the  book 
here  has  sold  immensely.    I  had  quite  forgotten  the 

I I  may  mention  that  my  father  seldom,  if  ever,  prefixed  the  date  of  the 
year  to  his  letters,  but  only  that  of  the  month. 


76 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


bottle  of  wine  incident,  which  was  suggested  by  a  carouse 
before  your  time. 

"  Ball  is  C  .    Tell  me  if  '  Eric  '  finds  its  way  among 

Marlburians  and  if  they  and  the  masters  like  it.  Also 
please  let  me  know  if,  and  when,  a  review  occurs  in  the 
Daily  News.  The  Critic,  Spectator,  Examiner,  Daily 
Express,  and  Evening  Conrant  have  all  been  favourable, 
and  I  am  daily  expecting  more.  I  have  had  ^50  for 
the  book  (this  entre  nous)  and  am  to  have  more  at  the 
second  edition,  if  there  is  one. 

"  By  the  bye,  Black  quite  supposes  you  to  be  at  work 
on  the  '  History  '  and  will  be  glad  to  hear  from  you 
when  it  is  at  all  in  a  forward  state,  he  bade  me  tell  you. 

"If  you  can  do  anything  to  help  '  Eric,'  I  know  you 
will.  The  letters  I  have  received  from  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  have  been  most  kind  and  also  the  warm 
encomiums  of  boys  and  master  here  —  the  former  all  the 
more  valuable  from  their  happy  and  warm  spontaneity. 
"  Good-bye, 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

"  Harrow,  December  7. 

"My  dear  Beesly:  One  line  —  I  have  no  time  for 
more  —  to  tell  you  that  I  am  exceedingly  obliged  for  the 
Review  in  the  Daily  News  and  feel  indebted  for  your 
kindness.  I  hear  —  but  have  not  yet  seen  —  that  the 
odious  '  Press  '  has  been  abusing  '  Eric  '  and  me.  I  daily 
expect  the  second  edition. 

"  I  have  just  heard  from  Brown  at  K.  W.  C.  '  Eric ' 
has  been  read  there.  No  opinion  can  be  got  out  of 
Dixon,  but  H.  thinks  it  will  injure  the  school.  Absurd  ! 
but  even  if  so,  I  am  not  to  blame  —  for  the  picture,  as 


HARROW  DAYS 


77 


far  as  it  is  one,  is  highly  flattered.  K.  W.  C.  has  no  Mr. 
Rose,  or  even  Mr.  Gordon  —  or  Dr.  Rowland.  K.  W.  C. 
had  certainly  no  Russell  or  Owen  ;  and  the  things  that 
did  go  on  there  are  really  far  worse  than  I  have 
described.  By  the  bye  — you  are  supposed  by  some 
readers  to  be  the  prototype  of  Montagu.  Are  you  flat- 
tered ?  It  was  confidently  asserted  to  me  by  an  old 
Marlburian. 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

"  Harrow,  March  2nd. 

"  My  dear  Beesly  :  By  all  means  come  on  Sunday, 
whichever  you  like  best.  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you.  In 
these  days  to  me  the  days  are  dark,  and  friends  are  few. 
Do  not  think  that  I  care  for  the  Saturday  Review. 
With  Coleridge  I  deplore  unfavourable  criticism  from  the 
good,  but  I  despise  it  from  the  weak,  and  I  welcome  it 
from  the  bad ! 

"Julian  has  done  all  the  good  I  meant  him  to  do,  and 
more.  I  have  had  many  warm  testimonies  as  to  the 
good  the  book  has  done,  and  one  of  them  from  a  judge, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  on  the  bench,  and  a  per- 
fect stranger  to  me.  I  can  despise  the  lies  of  the  Sat- 
urday Reviewer.  They  injure  him  more  than  me. 
Meanwhile  thirteen  thousand  copies  of  the  book  have 
sold  already.  When  you  come,  tell  me  frankly  as  a 
friend  what  things  offended  you.  No  one  is  more  open 
than  I  to  candid  criticism,  and  no  one  winces  at  it 
less. 

"  Do  come,  and  believe  me  always 

"  Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 


78  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"Cambridge,  November  15,  1874. 

"  Sir  :  I  write  to  perform  a  duty  that  I  owe  to  you 
and  one  which  I  have  intended  to  do  for  some  time.  I 
wish  to  tell  you  that  I  have  experienced  more  pleasure 
from  that  schoolboy  tale  of  yours,  viz  :  '  Eric,'  than  from 
anything  that  has  happened  to  me  in  my  life.  I  first  read 
it  at  school,  and  have  had  a  copy  by  me  for  years  now. 

"  I  really  can  fairly  say  that  I  have  never  gained  so 
much  from  all  that  I  have  ever  heard  or  read,  or  that 
has  ever  happened  to  me  as  I  have  from  that  book.  I 
like  Eric's  nature  and  the  pieces  of  poetry  in  it  im- 
mensely, and  I  am  sure  those  to  whom  I  have  lent  it 
have  also  enjoyed  it. 

"  Believe  me, 

"Yours  truly, 

"A.  B.  (Student)." 

"Norwich,  May  29,  1878. 

"  Reverend  Sir  :  As  Secretary  of  a  very  influential 
Literary  Class,  and  that  moreover  in  connection  with  a 
Churchman's  Club,  it  may  perhaps  give  you  some 
amount  of  pleasure  to  hear  that  a  great  many  members 
of  the  class  have  derived  a  very  great  and  lasting  bene- 
fit from  those  eloquent  and  beautiful  books  'Julian 
Home,'  and  'Eric,  or  Little  by  Little.'  I  myself  have 
to  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  writing  them.  They 
elevate  the  mind  to  a  purer  and  more  holy  atmosphere, 
and  if  read  when  the  mind  is  in  chaos  and  tumult,  they 
whisper  '  peace,  calm,  blessed  peace  ! '  They  give  tone, 
health,  and  vigour  to  the  spiritual  frame,  and  feed  the 
lamp  of  the  Shekinah  with  oil  pure  as  a  crystal.  In 
the  hour  of  weakness  I  have  found  them  a  source  of 
strength,  and  from  many  of  my  friends  I  hear  con- 


HARROW  DAYS 


79 


stantly  of  the  good  that  has  resulted  from  a  thoughtful 
perusal  of  your  forcible  works.  .  .  . 
"  I  am,  Reverend  Sir, 

"  Your  faithful  servant, 

"  R.  D  ." 

"December  29,  1879. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Farrar  :  I  expect  that  you  will  be  sur- 
prised at  my  addressing  you  thus,  but,  although  we  have 
never  met,  you  seem  to  be  quite  an  old  friend  to  me. 
My  special  desire  is  to  thank  you  most  heartily  and  sin- 
cerely for  the  great  comfort,  sympathy,  support  and  en- 
couragement I  have  in  the  first  instance  received  from 
the  reading  of  your  '  Eric '  and  '  St.  Winifred's,'  as  a 
boy  :  and  especially  from  your  Marlborough  Sermons, 
as  a  young  man.  I  wish  that  the  Captain  of  every  school 
in  England  could  read  what  you  say." 

******* 

"Hunslet,  Leeds,  29,  1, 1oi. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir  :  In  the  belief  that  the 
following  fact  will  be  of  interest  to  you,  and  tho'  perhaps 
quite  familiar,  may  give  some  satisfaction,  I  venture  to 
write  this  note  —  tho'  a  complete  stranger  to  you. 

"  During  some  years  of  work  in  E.  London,  and 
here  on  the  outskirts  of  Leeds,  I  have  tried  to  do  some- 
thing by  way  of  getting  boys  to  read  books  of  the 
healthy  sort.  And  I  have  repeatedly  noticed  that  both 
among  the  very  poor  of  London,  and  among  the  better 
sort  of  working  folk  here,  boys  have  always  been  enthu- 
siastic in  praise  of  '  Eric '  and  '  St.  Winifred's.' 

"  I  confess  that  this  has  surprised  me,  as  I  always 
feared  that  the  clothing  of  the  stories  would  make  them 


8o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


somewhat  difficult  for  the  less  educated.  But  I  have 
found  myself  altogether  mistaken. 

"  May  I  therefore,  sir,  offer  my  small  tribute  of  thanks 
to  you  on  behalf  of  my  own  boyhood,  and  for  the  many 
boys  who,  to  my  own  knowledge,  have  been  delighted, 
as  welj  as  braced,  by  the  books. 

"  Believe  me,  Reverend  Sir, 

"  Yours  obediently, 

"  T.  S.  G.  B  , 

"Curate,  Hunslet  Parish  Church." 

"March  27,  1902. 

"  My  dear  Sir  :  I  am  taking  the  liberty  of  writing  to 
you  without  personally  knowing  you,  because  I  wished 
to  tell  you  what  good  your  books  have  done  me.  I  left 
Shrewsbury  School  at  Xmas,  and  it  was  through  read- 
ing '  Eric '  that  I  first  learnt  to  hate  sin,  and  ever  since 
that  time,  about  four  years  ago,  I  have  tried  to  live  a 
pure,  brave,  and  true  life  at  school ;  and  I  have  tried  to 
help  others  to  do  the  same,  and  I  know  in  some  cases 
by  God's  help  I  have  not  failed.  I  feel  so  deeply  grate- 
ful to  you  for  writing  such  books,  for  I  tremble  to  think 
what  my  school  life  would  have  been,  if  I  had  gone  on 
as  I  was  doing  till  I  read  '  Eric '  and  others.  I  was  going 
into  the  army,  but  now  it  is  my  dearest  wish  to  become  a 
priest,  so  I  shall  be  going  to  Oxford,  I  think,  but  not  just 
yet.    I  felt  I  must  write  to  you,  so  please  do  not  mind. 

"  I  wish  I  had  the  honour  of  your  acquaintance  :  some 
day  I  may  have,  perhaps,  when  I  am  a  man,  and  not 
just  a  big  boy. 

"  With  many  thanks, 

"  Believe  me, 

"  Ever  yours  gratefully, 

"W.  H.  P.  K  ." 


HARROW  DAYS 


8 1 


"  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

"  Sir  :  Having  been  too  deeply  interested  for  words 
in  a  very  touching  work  edited  by  you,  called  '  Eric,  or 
Little  by  Little,'  I  take  the  extreme  liberty,  which  I 
hope  you  will  excuse,  of  addressing  myself  to  you,  and 
the  further  liberty  of  confessing  a  very  great  curiosity 
to  know  the  exact  situations  of  various  places  mentioned, 
and  the  further  or  present  history  and  names  of  those 
mentioned  in  that  beautiful,  because  unadorned,  little 
history. 

"  Your  little  schoolboy  history  has  led  me  to  reflect 
on  my  former  life  and  resolve  with  not  my  own  strength 
to  fit  myself  for  a  useful  man,  and  not  a  mere  backslider 
as  heretofore. 

"  I  pledge  myself  as  a  boy  of  honour  and  a  gentleman's 
son  not  to  disclose  whatever  you  may  choose  to  honour 
me  with  to  any  one  whatever.  I  also  sign  my  true  name 
to  this  letter. 

"  I  am,  sir, 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  R.  C.  A — r 

The  following  appreciation  written  after  his  death 
may  be  inserted  here  :  — 

"the  late  dean  farrar 

"A  great  Churchman  is  dead,  but  to  boys  he  will  always 
be  remembered  as  the  author  of  two  of  the  finest  school 
tales  ever  written.  In  '  Eric  '  and  '  St.  Winifred's  '  he 
has  left  behind  him  a  more  lasting  monument  than  any 
that  could  be  erected  of  marble.  He  wrote  of  the  deeper 
emotions  of  boy  life  and  touched  its  inner  chord  in  a  way 
which,  it  seems  to  us,  no  other  writer  has  ever  equalled. 


82  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


So  wonderfully  beautiful  and  pathetic  are  some  of  the 
passages  in  these  two  stories  that  even  the  most  hard- 
ened reader  cannot  get  over  them  without  tears  coming 
into  his  eyes ;  and  yet  they  are  so  thoroughly  manly. 
We  look  upon  the  heroes  as  if  they  were  our  friends ; 
we  glory  in  their  triumphs,  we  suffer  with  them  in  their 
misfortunes.  The  good  that  these  two  books  have  done 
must  be  incalculable,  and  in  reading  them  one  feels  the 
stronger  to  withstand  temptation  and  a  more  loving 
spirit  enters  the  heart  for  one's  fellow-men. 

"F.  J.  S." 

FARRAR  AS  A  TEACHER 

The  epithet  which  most  characteristically  attaches  to 
my  father's  qualities  as  a  teacher  is  "  stimulating."  His 
old  friend  Dr.  Butler,  then  head-master  of  Harrow,1  says 
in  a  letter  about  this  date,  "  your  teaching  and  inspiring 
powers  would  throw  life  and  thought  into  any  form  of 
any  school  in  England."  He  was  not  content  to  be 
merely  an  effective  teacher  within  the  limits  of  a  narrow 
routine,  but  aimed  at  realising  for  himself,  and  imparting 
to  others,  the  true  meaning  and  ideal  of  education  as  an 
instrument  of  bringing  out  the  full  powers  of  the  mind 
and  equipping  the  student  for  the  duties  of  life.  Brill- 
iant as  were  his  own  scholastic  attainments,  and  his 
powers  as  a  classical  tutor,  he  was  not  content  with 
instilling  an  accurate  knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin 
syntax,  or  facility  in  prose  and  verse  composition,  which 
in  those  days  were  regarded  in  most  public  schools  as 
the  be-all  and  end-all  of  a  classical  education,  but  tried 
to  awaken  in  his  pupils  a  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
literature  which  is  enshrined  in  those  "  dead  "  languages, 
to  lead  them  to  appreciate  the  "thunderous  lilt"  of  Greek 

1  The  present  Master  of  Trinity. 


HARROW  DAYS 


83 


epic,  the  touching  and  voluptuous  tenderness  of  Latin 
elegy,  the  regal  pomp  of  history,  the  gorgeous  and  phil- 
osophic mystery  of  the  old  dramatic  fables,1  to  regard 
the  Odyssey  as  "  the  best  novel  that  was  ever  written," 
and  Herodotus  as  a  Greek  romance  of  the  rise  and  fall 
of  empires,  and  "  strange  stories  of  the  deaths  of  kings." 

In  this  connection  I  cannot  refrain  from  inserting 
the  fine  rendering  of  the  denouement  of  the  Odyssey 
which  he  gives  in  "  Julian  Home  "  :  — 

"  So  he  read  to  them  how  Ulysses  returned  in  the 
guise  of  a  beggar,  after  twenty  years  of  war  and  wander- 
ing, to  his  own  palace-door,  and  saw  the  haughty  suitors 
revelling  in  his  halls ;  and  how,  as  he  reached  the  door, 
Argus,  the  hunting-dog,  now  old  and  neglected,  and  full 
of  fleas,  recollected  him  when  all  had  forgotten  him,  and 
fawned  upon  him,  and  licked  his  hand  and  died ;  and 
how  the  suitors  insulted  him,  and  one  of  them  threw  a 
footstool  at  him,  which  by  one  quick  move  he  avoided, 
and  said  nothing,  and  another  flung  a  shin-bone  at  his 
head,  which  he  caught  in  his  hand,  and  said  nothing, 
but  only  smiled  grimly  in  his  heart  —  ever  so  little,  a 
grim,  sardonic  smile ;  and  how  the  old  nurse  recognised 
him  by  the  scar  of  the  boar's  tusk  on  his  leg,  but  he 
quickly  repressed  the  exclamation  of  wonderment  which 
sprang  to  her  lips ;  and  how  he  sat,  ragged  but  princely, 
by  the  fire  in  his  hall,  and  the  red  light  flickered  over 
him,  and  he  spake  to  the  suitors  words  of  solemn  admo- 
nition ;  and  how,  when  Agelaus  warned  them,  a  strange 
foreboding  seized  their  souls,  and  they  looked  at  each 
other  with  great  eyes,  and  smiled  with  alien  lips,  and 
burst  into  quenchless  laughter,  though  their  eyes  were 
filled  with  tears  of  blood :  and  how  Ulysses  drew  his  own 
mighty  bow,  which  not  one  of  them  could  use,  and  how 

1  Cf.  "  Julian  Home." 


84  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


he  handled  it,  and  twanged  the  string  till  it  sang  like  a 
swallow  in  his  ear,  and  sent  the  arrow  flying  with  a  whiz 
through  the  twelve  iron  rings  of  the  line  of  axes ;  and 
then,  lastly,  how  like  to  a  god,  he  leaped  on  his  own 
threshold  with  a  shout,  and  emptied  his  quiver  on  the 
ground,  and  gathered  his  rags  about  him,  and,  aided  by 
the  young  Telemachus  and  the  divine  swineherd,  sent 
hurtling  into  the  band  of  wine-stained  rioters  the  swift 
arrows  of  inevitable  death." 

But,  more  than  this,  he  first  kindled  in  the  heart  of 
many  a  Marlborough  and  Harrow  boy  a  love  for  Eng- 
lish literature,  and  especially  for  English  poetry,  for 
which  they  have  blessed  his  name  all  their  lives. 

He  was,  as  Dr.  Thring  of  Uppingham  pithily  said  of 
him,  "  not  a  mere  knowledge-box  with  the  lid  open,  but 
a  true  guide  and  teacher,  able  and  willing  to  help, 
inspirit,  and  lead  the  way." 

Though  he  had  never  been  trained  in  any  branch  of 
natural  science,  and  indeed  had  no  special  aptitude  in 
that  direction,  he  was  very  keen  to  implant  in  his  boys 
a  love  of  nature  and  to  encourage  the  study  of  natural 
history.  With  this  object  he  founded  the  Harrow 
Natural  History  Society,  a  pioneer  of  many  similar  soci- 
eties. He  took  great  pains  to  ascertain  from  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker  and  others  the  best  method  of  teaching  botany 
and  became  himself  a  fairly  proficient  botanist. 

The  following  appreciation,  by  one  of  his  favourite 
Harrow  pupils,  Mr.  George  Russell,  gives  an  excellent 
description  of  my  father's  teaching  :  — 

"  When  I  was  at  Harrow,  Farrar  was  an  assistant  mas- 
ter there,  and  I  have  always  blessed  the  day  when  I  fell 
under  his  influence.  At  that  time  he  had  charge  of  '  the 
Remove,'  —  the  top  form  of  the  Lower  School, — the 


HARROW  DAYS 


85 


average  age  of  the  boys  who  composed  it  being,  I  suppose, 
about  fourteen.  Every  one  who  knows  Public  Schools 
knows  that  boys  of  that  age  are  thorough  Philistines, 
despising  intellect  and  glorying  in  their  brutal  ignorance. 
For  such  creatures  it  was  a  most  beneficial  experience 
to  pass  into  Farrar's  hands.  He  employed  all  his  varied 
resources  —  kindness,  sympathy,  sternness,  rhetoric,  sar- 
casm —  in  the  effort  to  make  us  feel  ashamed  of  being 
ignorant,  and  anxious  to  know.  He  was  ruthless  in 
his  determination  to  disturb  what  he  called  the  '  duck- 
weed '  —  the  mass  of  sheer  indolence  and  fatuity  which 
pervaded  his  form  —  and  to  bring  out  and  encourage 
the  faintest  signs  of  perception  and  intelligence.  His 
contagious  enthusiasm  stimulated  anything  which  we 
possessed  in  the  way  of  intellectual  taste  or  power. 

"He  taught  us  to  love  what  was  beautiful  in  literature, 
art,  and  nature.  He  lived  and  moved  and  had  his  being 
in  poetry,  and  was  never  so  happy  as  when  helping  us 
to  illustrate  our  Virgil  or  Euripides  from  Wordsworth 
and  Milton.  His  Dissertation  on  Coleridge  in  the  Fellow- 
ship examination  at  Trinity  had  won  the  rare  and  stately 
praise  of  Dr.  Whewell,  and  he  loved  to  indoctrinate  his 
Harrow  pupils  with  the  wisdom  of  '  the  great  poet- 
philosopher.'  Again,  he  had  early  passed  under  the 
influence  of  Ruskin,  and  that  influence  reproduced  itself 
in  the  constant  endeavour  to  make  us  see  the  loveliness 
of  common  things,  —  sunsets  and  wild  flowers  and  fresh 
grass  and  autumn  leaves.  He  tried  to  make  us  under- 
stand Nature  as  well  as  love  her,  by  elementary  lessons 
in  botany  and  mineralogy.  He  decorated  his  school- 
room with  antique  casts  as  models  of  form,  and  Fra 
Angelico's  blue  Madonnas  and  rose-coloured  angels  on 
golden  backgrounds  as  models  of  colour. 

"  He  brought  illustrations  for  his  teaching  from  Alps 


86  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


and  rivers  and  rainbows,  and  pursued  his  love  of  beauty 
down  to  the  microcosm  of  gems  and  bindings,  illumina- 
tions and  stained  glass.  He  laid  great  stress  on  delicate 
and  graceful  penmanship — not  a  common  accomplish- 
ment among  schoolboys,  —  and  he  paid  heed  to  the 
minutest  details  of  his  pupils'  appearance  and  manners. 

'  B  ,  how  many  centuries  have  elapsed  since  your  boots 

were  last  cleaned  ? '  is  a  sonorous  interrogation  which 
comes  rolling  on  the  ear  of  memory,  blent  with  such 

voices  as  these :  '  A  ,  don't  sit  there  "  gorgonising  me 

with  your  stony  British  stare,"  '  and  '  C  ,  your  igno- 
rance is  so  profound  that  it  ossifies  the  very  powers  of 
scorn.' 

"  As  some  critics  here  depreciated  Farrar's  preaching, 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  at  Harrow  it  was  a  powerful 
influence  for  good.  His  sermons  in  the  School  Chapel 
were  events  long  looked  forward  to  and  deeply  enjoyed. 
His  exuberance  of  rhetoric,  though  in  latter  years  it 
offended  adult  audiences,  awed  and  fascinated  boys,  and 
his  solemn  yet  glowing  appeals  for  righteousness  and 
purity  and  moral  courage  left  permanent  dints  on  our 
hearts,  and — what  is  less  usual — on  our  lives.  I  have 
never  forgotten  the  first  sermon  which  I  heard  from  him. 
It  was  preached  after  the  first  communion  of  the  boys 
confirmed  at  Harrow  on  March  19,  1868,  and  is  printed 
under  the  title  '  Hope  in  Christ,'  in  the  volume  called 
'  The  Fall  of  Man,  and  other  Sermons.'  I  had  never 
before  heard  eloquence  employed  in  the  service  of 
religion,  and  the  effect  was  indelible." 

Another  old  Harrovian  thus  writes :  — 

"The  news  of  Farrar's  death  —  one  can't  somehow 
lead  off  with  a  prefix  or  an  affix  to  the  name  of  the  noble- 
hearted  man  now  gone  to  rest,  preferring  to  remember 


HARROW  DAYS 


87 


him  and  style  him  as  we  did  when  boys  at  school  —  will 
be  keenly  felt  by  many  a  middle-aged  man  who  came 
beneath  his  genial  influence  years  ago.  With  us  he  was 
always  Farrar ;  no  soubriquet,  complimentary  or  other- 
wise, was  ever  fastened  on  him  :  the  nature  and  the  ele- 
vated character  of  the  man  forbade  the  slightest  approach 
to  juvenile  frivolity ;  and  whilst  we  admired  and  re- 
spected, we  all  loved  Farrar.  It  was  my  inestimable 
privilege  to  pass  the  best  part  of  three  years  under  his  be- 
nign control,  for  I  was  in  the  second  shell,  the  first  shell, 
and  the  remove  with  him  at  Harrow,  and  I  can  most  truth- 
fully aver  that  the  memories  of  the  example  he  set  his 
form,  and  the  great  lesson  of  human  charity  which  he 
impressed  upon  our  minds,  cannot  fail  to  have  proved  a 
blessing  to  us  all  in  after  life.  In  all  my  experience  of 
this  man  of  exquisite  nature,  and  our  associations  con- 
tinued long  after  the  old  Harrow  days,  I  never  heard 
him  utter  an  ill-natured  or  a  harsh  observation  concern- 
ing any  human  being.  His  great  and  increasing  object 
was  to  discover  what  good  an  individual  possessed,  and 
to  develop  that  good,  no  matter  how  small,  by  all  that 
in  him  lay. 

"  In  pursuance  of  this  end  he  used  to  lay  himself  out 
to  gain  the  confidence  as  well  as  the  respect  and  the 
regard  of  his  form,  and  the  boys  reciprocated  the  feel- 
ings of  good-will  that  he  expressed  towards  them  by  act 
as  well  as  word.  There  was  no  master  in  the  school  who 
could  show  a  lighter  punishment  book,  for  even  if  his 
boys  were  disinclined  for  work,  their  affection  for  their 
master  insured  discipline  amongst  them  ;  and  as  for  any- 
body attempting  to  deceive  Farrar,  who  always  trusted 
to  one's  honour,  why,  the  rest  of  the  form  would  have 
had  something  to  say  and  do  that  would  have  been  most 
unpleasant  to  the  delinquent.    Our  dear  old  master  — 


88  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


one  calls  him  old,  though  he  was  on  the  sunny  side  of 
his  eighth  lustrum  at  the  time  I  am  writing  of  —  however, 
possessed  methods  peculiarly  his  own  for  getting  his 
boys  to  work.  If  a  lad  professed  his  inability  to  commit 
to  memory  the  Latin  lines  included  in  a  repetition  lesson, 
Farrar  would  substitute  Milton  for  the  other  poet,  as- 
suring his  victim  with  a  serene  smile  that  the  substituted 
task  was  not  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  most  case-hard- 
ened victim  of  Circe  —  a  very  favourite  expression  of 
his  —  that  had  ever  conceived  the  world  to  be  formed 
in  the  humble  imitation  of  a  cricket-ball :  this  being  the 
utmost  limit  of  sarcasm  to  which  our  master  would  com- 
mit himself.  So  in  the  case  of  other  work,  a  boy  who 
evinced  a  desire  to  cut  one  subject  was  promptly  coun- 
tered by  the  imposition  of  another,  and  perhaps  easier, 
task  which  for  very  shame  he  could  not  plead  his  in- 
ability to  perform. 

"  I  am  not  aware  that  in  any  of  the  allusions  which 
have  been  made  to  the  life-work  of  Dr.  Farrar  that  a 
reference  has  been  made  to  the  devotion  he  bestowed 
upon  natural  history  subjects.  His  form  room  beneath 
the  Vaughan  Library  was  more  like  a  miniature  museum 
than  a  place  for  instructing  a  lot  of  boys  in  Greek  and 
Latin.  It  was  entirely  owing  to  his  initiative  that  special 
prizes,  and  valuable  ones  too,  were  offered  in  successive 
years  for  the  best  collections  of  birds'  eggs,  butterflies, 
fresh-water  and  land  shells,  and  such  like  objects,  his 
idea  being  to  provide  an  interest  in  life  for  the  boys  who 
were  not  enthusiastic  in  the  matter  of  cricket.  An  ex- 
ceptionally fine  swimmer  himself,  he  was  determined 
that  every  boy  in  his  form  should  acquire  the  art  of 
keeping  himself  above  water ;  and  in  pursuance  of  his 
desire  to  attain  that  end  he  used  to  give  out  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  summer  term  that  as  soon  as  every 


HARROW  DAYS 


89 


boy  could  swim  the  length  of  '  Ducker '  twice,  he  would 
let  the  whole  form  off  a  morning  school.  The  hint  was 
always  taken,  and  it  became  the  business  of  the  big  boys 
to  see  that  the  small  ones  qualified  for  the  test.  Farrar 
even  went  the  length  of  taking  part  in  the  football  match 
which  took  place  between  Remove  A  and  Remove  B, 
but  it  must  be  confessed  that  we  did  not  gain  much  by 
his  assistance;  for  the  master  of  our  opponents,  Mr.  E.  E. 
Bowen,  a  great  athlete,  assisted  his  boys,  and  so  Remove 
B  lost  on  the  deal,  but  we  won  the  match,  and  in  his 
delight  our  dear  old  master  let  us  off  another  first  school,  r 
which  gave  us  an  additional  hour  in  bed  the  next  morn- 
ing. 

"  At  the  time  when  Dr.  Farrar  was  appointed  Uni- 
versity preacher  at  Cambridge  it  was  my  lot  to  occupy 
rooms  in  Caius  just  opposite  St.  Mary's  Church,  and  in 
an  unguarded  moment  I  let  it  become  known  that  he 
had  invited  himself  to  tea  after  the  service.  The  result 
was  a  scene  that  he  referred  to  years  afterward,  when 
we  met  one  day  in  Ludgate  Hill,  as  one  of  the  most 
gratifying  experiences  of  his  life,  as  my  rather  restricted 
quarters  were  filled  to  overflowing  with  old  Harrow  boys 
all  eager  to  greet  our  guest.  Nor  was  there  one  amongst 
them  that  went  empty  away,  for  he  had  a  word  of  good- 
will and  counsel  for  all,  and  not  a  few  amongst  them 
expressed  their  sense  of  the  value  of  his  service.  In 
short  Farrar  possessed  a  faculty  such  as  Arnold  had, 
for  identifying  himself  with  the  nature  of  the  boys 
under  his  care,  and  hence  the  secret  of  his  influence  over 
them.  Incapable  as  he  was  of  a  dishonourable  action, 
his  example  was  contagious,  and  he  knew  his  power  and 
exercised  it  for  the  benefit  of  us  all.  As  a  churchman, 
as  a  writer,  and  as  a  scholar  he  was  doubtless  great ;  but 
as  a  teacher  for  the  young  he  stood  alone  amongst  his 


90  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


contemporaries.  Had  it  been  otherwise  the  memories 
of  his  gentleness  of  disposition,  his  nobility  of  character, 
his  manliness,  and  love  of  truth,  would  have  long  since 
passed  away  instead  of  remaining  crystallised  in  the 
minds  of  many  others  who,  like  myself,  were  privileged 
to  be  benefited  by  the  great  truths  he  expounded  for  the 
welfare  of  his  boys." 

When  I  wrote  to  the  writer  of  the  above  extract, 
which  appeared  in  the  Morning  Advertiser,  for  his  per- 
mission to  make  use  of  it,  I  received  from  him  the  follow- 
ing very  kind  answer  :  — 

"  Morning  Advertiser,  Fleet  St.  July  26,  1903. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  My  Editor  has  handed  to  me  your  letter 
to  him,  and  also  the  enclosure  which  I  hasten  to  reply 
to.  It  will  afford  me  much  melancholy  satisfaction  if 
you  make  any  use  of  what  I  wrote  about  your  dear, 
good  father,  for  whom  my  respect  and  boyish  love  will 
ever  continue,  though  I  left  Harrow  as  far  back  as  1868. 
He  was,  to  my  mind,  the  ideal  adviser  for  the  young,  a 
Christian  with  a  great  mind,  and  a  scholar,  yet  his  gen- 
tleness and  goodness  were  such  that  he  was  incapable 
of  despising  the  direst  of  his  'victims  of  Circe,'  amongst 
whom  I  fear  I  was  conspicuous.  I  was  with  him  for 
nearly  two  years  in  the  '  Remove,'  and  I  never  heard 
him  say  an  ill-natured  or  an  unkind  thing  about  a  living 
creature,  except  to  a  boy  who  had  lied  to  him.  Very 
few  fellows,  however,  tried  a  falsehood  with  your  father, 
for  we  others,  idle,  lazy,  or  whatever  we  were,  would  not 
stand  that,  for  he  possessed  a  faculty  for  making  every- 
body who  came  in  contact  with  him  remember  that  he 
was  a  gentleman :  so  in  our  form  it  was  considered  the 
height  of  blackguardism  to  1  deceive  Farrar.'    I  only 


HARROW  DAYS 


9' 


wish  we  had  all  followed  out  his  teachings  in  after  life. 
You  must  excuse  the  abnormal  length  of  this  letter,  but 
your  father  is  a  theme  upon  which  I  have  great  diffi- 
culty in  restraining  my  feelings.  .  .  . 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

i<  >' 

After  preaching  the  University  Sermon  alluded  to 
above,  my  father  received  the  following  letter,  —  dated, 
it  will  be  noticed,  nine  months  later :  — 

"  Dear  Sir  :  I  have  taken  up  my  pen  to  write  to  you 
more  than  once,  but  until  now  have  never  really  deter- 
mined on  doing  so. 

"  Please  excuse  the  liberty  I  take  in  addressing  you. 
The  fact  is,  since  I  heard  your  sermon  preached  before 
the  University  of  Cambridge  in  March  last,  my  desires 
and  aims  have  been  so  completely  changed  that  it  is  my 
duty  as  well  as  great  pleasure  to  write  and  inform  you, 
that  you,  through  God's  grace,  have  been  the  means 
of  it. 

"  Your  book  of  sermons  has  helped  me  on  still  further, 
and  I  trust  you  will  soon  publish  another  set. 

"  I  suppose  a  minister  must  preach  for  an  object !  If 
yours  was  to  set  your  hearers'  desires  on  high,  above 
this  earth,  and  its  passing  pleasures,  in  one  you  have 
succeeded,  and  I  pray,  my  dear  sir,  you  will  have  long 
years  to  effect  changes  as  complete  as  mine. 

"  I  am,  with  great  respect, 

"A  University  Man. 

"January  18,  1869." 


92 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


The  following  contribution  is  placed  at  my  service  by 
his  old  pupil,  Walter  Leaf,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  and  senior  Classic  in  1874:  — 

"In  1866,  when  I  first  knew  Harrow,  Farrar  was,  I 
think,  already  looked  upon  by  his  school  at  large  as  by 
far  the  most  distinguished  member  of  the  staff  —  the 
Head  Master  being,  of  course,  hors  concours.  Farrar 
himself,  I  well  remember,  was  never  tired  of  telling  us 
that  our  greatest  man  was  Westcott ;  but  whatever  truth 
there  may  have  been  in  this  unselfish  eulogy,  Westcott's 
reputation  was  at  that  time  limited  to  academical  and 
theological  regions,  while  Farrar  was  fast  making  a  name 
in  the  world  at  large;  and  his  F.R.S.  was  an  official 
stamp  which  we  boys  were  ready  enough  to  recognise 
and  reverence.  We  believed  this  distinction  to  have 
been  given  for  his  philological  work,  and  respected  to 
the  full  his  Greek  Grammar  —  even  his  Greek  Grammar 
card,  which  summed  up  in  striking  form,  with  vivid  illus- 
trations, some  of  the  most  characteristic  peculiarities  of 
Greek  Syntax. 

"  Personally  I  had  no  experience  of  Farrar  as  a  form- 
master.  In  1866  he  was  still  taking  a  low  form  —  lower 
than  the  one  at  which  I  entered  the  school.  But  he  was 
never  at  his  best  as  a  teacher  of  a  low  form ;  his  half- 
humorous  impatience  of  the  dull  and  backward  was  not 
all  assumed,  and  his  quick  sympathies  needed  the  in- 
telligent response  of  the  picked  boys  before  his  powers 
of  stimulating  and  guidance  could  show  themselves. 
Hence  it  was  that  he  was  never  so  happy  at  Harrow, 
where  he  never  had  a  high  form,  as  with  the  Sixth  at 
Marlborough.  But  I  was  during  my  whole  school  career 
his  '  pupil '  in  the  technical  sense,  which  at  Harrow 
practically  excluded  teaching ;  for  the  weekly  '  pupil- 
room,'  where  the  tutor  gave  a  lesson  of  an  hour  to  the 


HARROW  DAYS 


93 


whole  of  his  pupils  in  the  lower  school,  was  by  the  nature 
of  the  case  somewhat  of  a  farce,  and  was  looked  upon 
both  by  boys  and  tutor  as  a  perfunctory  task. 

"  It  was,  I  think,  his  public  reputation  which  induced 
my  father  to  place  me  under  him,  for  when  he  went  to 
reside  at  Harrow  he  knew  none  of  the  masters  person- 
ally. But  this  official  connection  led  to  a  warm  and  inti- 
mate friendship  between  Farrar  and  my  parents,  which 
lasted  to  the  end.  As  regards  myself,  the  relation  of 
pupil  and  tutor  brought  me  ample  instruction,  though 
outside  the  official  time-table.  Farrar's  sympathy,  when 
once  engaged,  was  unfailing ;  and  his  talk,  with  its  infi- 
nite resources  of  quotation  and  literary  enthusiasm,  was 
just  what  was  wanted  to  stir  a  boy's  open  but  unin- 
structed  spirit.  It  would  be  too  much  to  pretend  that 
after  a  lapse  of  nearly  forty  years  I  can  remember  many 
details ;  but  I  have  a  distinct  recollection  of  a  constant 
influence  brought  to  bear  upon  my  somewhat  unimagi- 
native nature  in  favour  of  poetry.  It  is  perhaps  charac- 
teristic that  one  poem  which  I  remember  approaching 
through  him  was  Myer's  '  St.  Paul,'  then,  of  course, 
very  recently  published.  It  appealed  to  him  unmistak- 
ably, and  his  admiration  was  handed  on  to  me. 

"  But  our  purely  personal  relations  were,  of  course, 
even  more  important  to  me  than  the  intellectual.  The 
high  moral  standard  which  he  set  before  himself,  and 
fearlessly  impressed  upon  us  boys,  may  be  lightly  passed 
over  here,  for  his  whole  life  tells  equally  of  it.  We  were 
all  sensible  of  it  through  his  sermons,  and  in  private 
intercourse  with  him  the  better  we  knew  him  the  more 
we  saw  that  his  preaching  spoke  the  inmost  being  of  the 
man.  But  in  the  every-day  affairs  of  life  those  who  had 
to  deal  with  him  could  always  trust  to  his  sympathy  and 
active  help.    I  still  remember  the  trifling  incident  which 


94 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


first  won  the  heart  of  a  shy  and  reserved  new  boy.  In  the 
temporary  absence  of  our  regular  master,  the  form  was 
taken  by  a  colleague  not  gifted  with  a  warm  heart  or 
keen  insight.  He  brought  up  against  me  an  imaginary 
offence,  and,  refusing  to  listen  to  my  denial  and  expla- 
nation, gave  me  my  first  punishment.  It  was  trifling 
enough  in  itself,  some  '  fifty  lines  ' ;  but  it  had  to  be 
written  out  on  special  paper,  'pun-paper,'  which  one 
had  to  get  from  one's  tutor.  Smarting  with  the  in- 
justice, I  went  to  Farrar  to  get  the  paper;  and  I  have 
never  forgotten  the  sympathy  and  kindness  with  which 
he  heard  what  I  had  to  say,  and  instead  of  giving  me 
the  '  pun-paper '  promised  to  speak  to  his  colleague. 
I  heard  no  more  of  my  punishment. 

"Shortly  before  I  left  Harrow  he  succeeded  to  the 
mastership  of  a  large  house  which,  during  the  long  and 
ultimately  fatal  illness  of  his  predecessor,  had  lapsed 
into  notorious  want  of  discipline.  I  had  hitherto  been 
living  with  my  parents  as  home-boarder ;  but  now 
Farrar  strongly  urged  upon  them  and  me  that  I  should 
enter  his  house  as  head,  practically  undertaking  the  re- 
duction of  it  to  order.  The  task  was  a  formidable  one 
both  for  him  and  for  me.  I  foresaw  the  intense  unpopu- 
larity which  my  position  would  involve,  and  begged  to 
be  excused.  But  he  pressed  and  gained  his  point.  Into 
the  struggle  which  followed  I  need  not  enter ;  it  was 
even  harder  than  I  anticipated.  But  when  it  was  once 
over  I  saw  that  Farrar  had  been  right ;  and  I  have  ever 
looked  upon  it  as  my  greatest  debt  to  him  that  he  should 
have  insisted  upon  my  taking  this  first  share  of  the  grave 
responsibility  of  life.  It  was  a  lesson  that  I  needed,  and 
I  am  most  grateful  for  the  firmness  with  which  he 
insisted  on  teaching  it. 

"  Another  great  debt  brings  none  but  pleasant  memo- 


HARROW  DAYS 


95 


ries  with  it.  When  he  went  to  Palestine  in  1870,  shortly- 
after  I  had  left  the  school,  he  asked  me  to  go  with  him 
and  his  old  friend  W.  F.  Ingelow,  brother  of  the  poet- 
ess. The  journey  was  a  hurried  one,  as  it  had  to  be 
compressed  into  the  Easter  holidays.  We  went  by  Alex- 
andria to  Jaffa  and  Jerusalem,  riding  north  to  Mount 
Gerizim,  where  we  were  present  at  the  most  interesting 
ceremony  of  the  Samaritan  Passover.  We  then  went 
on  by  Nazareth  to  the  Lake  of  Gennesaret,  and  thence 
by  Safed  and  the  coast  road  past  Tyre  and  Sidon  to 
Beirut  and  back  by  Alexandria  (with  a  flying  visit  to 
Cairo)  and  Naples,  where  I  left  my  companions  to  join 
my  parents  in  Florence. 

"  It  is  needless  to  say  how  admirably  qualified  Farrar 
was  to  stir  the  imagination  on  every  site  of  the  Holy 
Land  —  always  ready  with  his  historical  reminiscences 
and  the  apt  quotations,  bearing  the  little  hardships  of 
travel  with  a  grim  patience  —  for  he  did  not  enjoy  them 
—  yet  ever  active  and  alert  to  all  that  could  throw  a  light 
upon  the  great  subject  on  which  his  mind  was  continually 
brooding.  Of  incidents  somewhat  outside  the  ordinary 
routine  of  the  journey  I  remember  particularly  a  visit  to 
Mr.  Holman  Hunt  in  his  studio  at  Jerusalem ;  he  was 
then,  I  think,  engaged  on  studies  for  '  Christ  among  the 
Doctors.'  The  journey  had  its  humorous  events.  In 
those  days  it  was  considered  proper  for  every  traveller 
to  carry  a  revolver  for  defence  against  the  possible  party 
of  marauding  Bedawin.  Farrar,  who  was  destitute  of 
the  warrior's  instinct,  regarded  his  weapon  with  consid- 
erable anxiety.  One  evening,  however,  he  thought  he 
ought  to  clean  it  and  went  outside  the  tent  for  the  pur- 
pose. Ingelow  and  I,  sitting  outside,  heard  a  report  — 
involuntary  of  course  —  and  two  holes  in  the  tent  showed 
that  the  bullet  had  passed  within  measurable  distance  of 


96  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


our  heads.  Then  I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  his  face 
in  the  tent  of  the  Sheikh  of  the  Samaritans  on  Mount 
Gerizim,  when  a  nargileh  was  placed  before  him  and  he 
was  told  that  courtesy  to  our  host  required  him  to  smoke 
it.  Again,  when  our  tent  was  blown  down  upon  us  in  a 
violent  thunderstorm  at  Safed,  I  remember  the  comic 
pathos  of  his  voice  exclaiming,  '  I'm  outside  1  —  a  posi- 
tion which  Ingelow  and  I  presently  shared.  The  con- 
tretemps, by  the  way,  pleasantly  enlarged  our  experience 
—  tents  and  bedding  alike  were  too  soaked  for  further 
use ;  and  for  the  rest  of  our  journey  to  Beirut  we  had  to 
trust  for  shelter  to  the  hospitality  of  the  village  sheikh 
or  the  native  caravans. 

"  But  of  all  my  recollections  the  clearest  and  deepest, 
because  strengthened  and  confirmed  by  many  years  of 
later  intercourse,  is  that  of  the  warm  and  generous  heart 
which  offered  a  full  and  loyal  friendship  so  early  and  in 
such  wise  fashion." 

The  charm  and  interest  of  his  teaching  remain  as  a 
tradition  in  the  memories  of  many  old  pupils,  but  a  more 
permanent  monument  of  his  skill  as  a  trainer  of  scholars 
is  enshrined  in  his  "  Greek  Syntax,"  which  was  amplified 
out  of  Farrar's  "  Greek  Card,"  so  well  known  to  many 
generations  of  schoolboys,  and  was  first  published 
in  March,  1867.  The  scope  of  this  work  is  best  indi- 
cated by  a  citation  from  its  preface  :  — 

"  I  aimed  above  all  things  at  making  every  point  intel- 
ligible by  furnishing  for  every  usage  (as  far  as  possible) 
a  satisfactory  reason  ;  and  by  thus  trying  to  eliminate 
all  mere  grammatical  mysticism,  I  hoped  that  I  should 
also  render  grammar  mteresti?ig  to  every  boy  who  has 
any  aptitude  for  such  studies,  and  is  sufficiently  advanced 
to  understand  them.    On  the  latter  point  I  venture  to 


HARROW  DAYS 


97 


lay  some  stress.  I  have  published  elsewhere  my  rea- 
sons for  believing  that  we  commence  too  soon  the  study 
of  formal  grammar,  and  that  this  study,  which  is  in  itself 
a  valuable  and  noble  one,  should  be  reserved  to  a  later 
age  and  for  more  matured  capacities  than  is  at  present 
thought  necessary.  I  should  never  think  of  putting  this 
Grammar  into  the  hands  of  boys  who  have  no  aptitude 
for  linguistic  studies,  or  of  any  boys  below  the  fifth  or 
sixth  forms  of  our  public  schools ;  and  I  have  purposely 
avoided  stating  rules  or  reasons  under  a  form  in  which 
they  could  be  learned  by  rote.  Taught  in  a  parrot-like 
manner  to  crude  minds,  I  believe  that  grammar  becomes 
bewildering  and  pernicious;  taught  at  a  later  age  and  in 
a  more  rational  method,  I  believe  that  it  will  be  found 
to  furnish  a  most  valuable  insight  into  the  logical  and 
metaphysical  laws  which  regulate  the  expression  of 
human  thought,  and  that  it  will  always  maintain  its 
ground  as  an  important  branch  of  knowledge,  and  a 
valuable  means  of  intellectual  training. 

"  All  grammars  must  necessarily  traverse  a  good  deal 
of  common  ground,  but  the  careful  perusal  of  a  very  few 
of  the  following  pages  will  prove,  I  trust,  that  this  Syn- 
tax differs  in  its  method  from  all,  or  nearly  all,  that  have 
preceded  it ;  partly  in  the  more  free  and  informal  manner 
of  treatment,  partly  in  its  perpetual  reference  to  the  gen- 
eral principles  of  Comparative  Philology,  and  partly  in 
its  constant  endeavour  to  leave  no  single  idiom  of  Greek 
unillustrated  by  the  similar  idioms  or  peculiarities  of 
other  ancient  languages,  of  modern  languages,  and  of 
English.  A  good  illustration  often  throws  over  an  idiom 
a  flood  of  light  unattainable  by  the  most  lengthy  expla- 
nation;  and  I  feel  great  hopes  that  a  student  who  has 
gone,  carefully,  through  the  following  pages  will,  —  in 
addition  to  what  he  will  have  learnt  about  ancient  Greek, 


98  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


—  have  acquired  some  insight  into  the  principles  of  his 
own  and  of  other  languages.  Further  than  this,  I  shall 
have  failed  in  my  endeavour  if  he  do  not  also  gain  some 
interest  in  observing  the  laws  and  great  cyclical  ten- 
dencies of  language  in  general.  The  historical  devel- 
opment of  one  language  bears  a  close  analogy  to  the 
historical  development  of  a  large  majority  of  the  rest ; 
and  this  is  the  reason  why  I  have  called  such  repeated 
attention  to  modern  Greek,  and  to  the  traces  in  Hellen- 
istic Greek,  which  in  modern  Greek  are  still  further 
developed  and  carried  to  their  legitimate  result." 

How  amply  the  "  Greek  Syntax "  fulfilled  those  ob- 
jects, let  any  public-school  classical  master  testify.  That 
it  met  a  long-felt  want  is  proved  by  its  immediate  success 
and  by  the  fact  that  by  1880  it  had  reached  its  eleventh 
edition.1  Every  rule  of  syntax  is  explained  in  lucid 
English,  and  impressed  on  the  memory  by  a  wealth  of 
illustration  which  makes  the  book  a  pleasure  to  read. 
Indeed,  a  friend  who  is  by  no  means  a  profound  scholar 
once  told  me,  long  after  he  had  abandoned  classical 
studies,  that  he  found  it  as  interesting  as  a  novel,  and 
frequently  picked  it  up  for  the  amusement  of  an  idle 
hour. 

Before  Farrar  appeared  to  ease  their  shoulders  from 
the  burden,  the  public-school  boys  of  England  had 
groaned  under  the  yoke  of  the  "  Primer,"  of  which 
he  thus  writes :  — 

"  The  '  Primer '  —  that  utterly  disastrous  legacy  of  the 
commission,  which,  in  spite  of  the  strenuous  opposition 
of  many  of  us,  is  now  forced  as  a  standard  grammar 
upon  nine  great  public,  and  countless  private,  schools  — 
is  a  delightful  manual,  in  which  the  little  victim,  not 
without  amazement,  learns  by  heart  in  Latin  such  a 

1  Over  14,500  copies  of  this  book  have  been  sold. 


HARROW  DAYS 


99 


multitude  of  lucid  empiricisms  as  that  '  factitive  verbs 
have  two  accusatives,  one  of  the  object,  the  other  of 
the  oblique  complement.'  Here,  too,  at  the  tender  age 
of  eight  or  nine  his  young  imagination  is  terrified, 
often  by  ignorant  men,  with  such  incubi  and  succubi 
as  '  quid-quale  verbs,'  '  gerundive  attractions,'  '  sub- 
oblique  clauses,'  'spirants,'  'receptive  complements,' 
'  relations  circumstantive  and  probative,'  '  quasi  pas- 
sives,' 'semi-deponents,'  and  I  know  not  what, — 
which  are  hard  enough  for  grown  men  to  understand, 
even  if  they  do  not  despise  this  clatter  of  pedantic  (be- 
cause needless)  polysyllables,  but  which  to  a  child  must 
be  worse  than  'gorgons  and  hydras  and  chimaeras 
dire.'  " 

The  above  extract  is  taken  from  a  lecture  "  On  Some 
Defects  in  Public  School  Education,"  delivered  by  my 
father  before  the  Royal  Institution.  It  is  a  significant 
fact  and  highly  characteristic  of  his  energy  and  versatil- 
ity that,  at  the  very  time  he  was  bringing  out  this  '  Syn- 
tax,' which  was  to  do  so  much,  not  only  to  make  smooth 
for  the  public-school  boy  the  stony  paths  of  classical 
learning,  but  to  vindicate  his  own  reputation  as  a  scholar, 
he  should  simultaneously  be  engaged  in  preparing  the 
most  tremendous  onslaught  that  has  ever  been  delivered 
on  the  system  of  classical  education  as  then  in  vogue. 

The  "Syntax"  was  published  in  March,  1867;  the 
Royal  Institution  lecture  had  been  given  in  February 
of  the  same  year.  This  attack  on  current  methods  of 
education  —  all  the  more  effective  for  being  delivered,  as 
it  were,  from  within,  by  a  scholar  whose  achievements 
as  a  schoolboy  and  undergraduate  had  been  exception- 
ally brilliant,  and  who  was  armed  with  the  experience  of 
thirteen  full  years  of  labour  spent  in  the  heart  of  public 
schools  and  devoted  to  their  service  —  mercilessly  ex- 


ioo  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


posed  the  shortcomings  of  a  system  which  turned  out 
boys,  not  only  destitute  of  all  literary  and  scientific 
culture,  but  even  so  ignorant  of  the  dead  languages  in 
which  they  had  been  assiduously  drilled  for  an  indefi- 
nite term  of  years,  that  they  could  not  speak  two  Latin 
sentences,  or  construe  Xenophon  without  a  crib. 

He  drove  home  this  indictment  of  the  hide-bound 
obscurantism  and  obsolete  pedantry  of  so-called  "  classi- 
cal "  education,  with  all  the  force  of  his  ardent  rhetoric, 
in  glowing  periods,  enriched  with  a  wealth  of  imagery, 
illustration,  and  quotation.  The  lecture  is  now  out  of 
print.  The  subject  was  so  important,  its  effect  has  been 
so  far-reaching,  and  its  style  is  so  characteristic  that  I 
have  here  ventured  to  take  from  it  a  few  extracts  which 
will  give  some  idea  of  its  scope. 

A  Royal  Commission  had  recently  reported  on  pub- 
lic schools ;  the  lecture  was  an  outcome  of  this  report, 
drew  popular  attention  to  its  findings,  and  gave  voice 
to  the  determination  of  the  younger  and  more  progres- 
sive school  of  teachers  that  the  old  system  should  be 
reformed :  — 

"  I  must,  then,  avow  my  own  deliberate  opinion  — 
arrived  at  in  the  teeth  of  the  strongest  possible  bias 
and  prejudice  in  the  opposite  direction — arrived  at 
with  the  fullest  possible  knowledge  of  every  single  argu- 
ment which  may  be  urged  on  the  other  side  —  I  must 
avow  my  distinct  conviction,  that  our  present  system  of 
exclusively  classical  education  as  a  whole,  and  carried 
out  as  we  do  carry  it  out,  is  a  deplorable  failure.  I  say 
it,  knowing  that  the  words  are  strong  words,  but  not 
without  having  considered  them  well ;  and  I  say  it  be- 
cause that  system  has  been  '  weighed  in  the  balance  and 
found  wanting.'  It  is  no  epigram,  but  a  simple  fact,  to 
say  that  classical  education  neglects  all  the  powers  of 


HARROW  DAYS 


IOI 


some  minds,  and  some  of  the  powers  of  all  minds.  In 
the  case  of  the  few  it  has  a  value,  which,  being  partial, 
is  unsatisfactory ;  in  the  case  of  the  vast  multitude,  it 
ends  in  utter  and  irremediable  waste. 

"The  proofs  of  the  fact  are  now  but  too  patent  in  the 
faithful  report  of  eminent  and  most  friendly  commis- 
sioners. For  after  diligent,  anxious,  and  repeated  study 
of  the  four  thick  blue  volumes  in  which  their  laborious 
investigations  lie  buried  from  the  public  ken,  I  can  draw 
from  them  no  other  conclusion  than  that  which  may  be 
summed  up  in  these  few  words :  That  but  a  small  pro- 
portion of  our  boys  (say  twenty-five  per  cent)  go  to 
the  universities ;  that  yet  the  entire  curriculum  of  our 
public  schools  is  framed  with  a  view  to  the  universities ; 
and  that  even  of  this  poor  twenty-five  per  cent,  who  are,  as 
it  were,  the  very  flower  and  fruit  of  the  system,  —  and  if 
I  may  so  phrase  it,  its  raison  d'etre,  —  a  considerable 
number  (many  would  be  inclined  to  say  the  larger  num- 
ber) leave  school  at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen, 
not  only  ignorant  of  history,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
ignorant  of  geography  and  chronology  ;  ignorant  of  every 
single  modern  language ;  ignorant  of  their  own  language 
and  often  of  its  mere  spelling ;  ignorant  of  every  single 
science ;  ignorant  of  the  merest  elements  of  geometry 
and  mathematics  ;  ignorant  of  music  ;  ignorant  of  draw- 
ing ;  profoundly  ignorant  of  that  Greek  and  Latin  to 
which  the  long,  ineffectual  years  of  their  aimless  teach- 
ing have  been  professedly  devoted ;  and,  we  may  add, 
besides  all  this,  and  perhaps  worst  of  all,  completely  igno- 
rant of  —  altogether  content  with  —  their  own  astonish- 
ing and  consummate  ignorance. 


102  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  Are  we,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  to  learn  no  more 
and  to  teach  no  more  —  nay,  to  attempt  and  to  achieve 
actually  less  —  than  was  learnt  by  young  Romans  in  the 
school  of  Quintilian,  or  at  best  by  Gregory  and  Basil  in 
the  retirement  of  Athens  ?  The  young  Greek  learnt 
something  of  geometry ;  the  young  Roman  something 
of  law ;  even  the  young  monk  of  the  Middle  Ages 
learnt  in  his  meagre  quadrivium  some  scraps  of  such 
science  as  was  then  to  be  had.  Are  we  alone  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  Chinese  in  a  changeless  imitation  of 
our  ancestors,  and  to  confine  our  eager  boys  for  ever 
between  the  blank  walls  of  an  ancient  cemetery,  which 
contains  only  the  sepulchres  of  two  dead  tongues  ? 

"  That  Greek  or  Latin  —  taught  in  a  shorter  period, 
and  in  a  more  comprehensive  manner — should  remain 
as  the  solid  basis  of  a  liberal  education,  we  are  all  (or 
nearly  all)  agreed :  none  can  hold  such  an  opinion  more 
strongly  than  myself ;  but  why  can  it  not  be  frankly 
recognised  that  an  education  confined  to  Greek  and 
Latin  is  a  failure  because  it  is  an  anachronism  ?  It  has 
outlived  its  time.  It  is  utterly  out  of  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  It  may  have  been  all  very  well  three 
centuries  ago,  but  is  it  to  remain  unaltered  after  three 
centuries,  which  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  have 
the  importance  of  thirty  ?  This  is  an  age  of  progress, 
and  we  keep  spinning  round  and  round  on  the  same 
pivot ;  an  age  of  observation  and  experiment,  and 
we  keep  bowing  and  scraping  to  mere  authority ; 
an  age,  as  Professor  Huxley  has  said,  '  full  of  modern 
artillery,  and  we  turn  out  our  boys  to  do  battle  in 
it,  equipped  with  the  sword  and  shield  of  an  ancient 
gladiator.'  Its  continuance  is  due  not  to  its  importance, 
but  mainly,  as  the  commissioners  admit,  to  custom  and 
prescription  ;  and  now  the  new  wine  is  bursting  the  old 
bottles." 


HARROW  DAYS 


103 


In  "  Men  I  Have  Known  "  my  father  thus  writes  of 
the  effect  of  this  lecture  :  — 

"  Struck  with  the  good  effect  of  interest  in  science  on 
the  intellectual  development  of  many  boys,  I  urged  in 
my  Lecture  that  the  very  artificial  drilling  in  Latin  and 
Greek  verse  should  be  minimised,  and  entirely  aban- 
doned in  the  case  of  boys  who  had  no  sort  of  aptitude 
for  it.  I  had  known  boys,  who  after  years  of  training 
in  it,  only  succeeded  in  producing  at  last  some  limping 
and  abortive  heptameter  !  Sir  Henry  Holland  was  in 
the  chair;  Professor  Tyndall,  Mr.  Spottiswoode,  after- 
wards President  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  other  scien- 
tific leaders  were  present.  They  hailed  my  Lecture 
with  the  utmost  warmth  —  paid  it  the  unusual  honour  of 
printing  it,  not  in  epitome,  but  at  full  length,  in  the 
Transactions,  and  also  begged  me  to  publish  it  as  a 
separate  pamphlet.  I  was,  of  course,  howled  at  as  a 
hopeless  Philistine  by  all  who  were  stereotyped  in  the 
old  classical  system.  That  is  the  result  which  invariably 
follows  the  enunciation  of  new  truths  or  plans  for  nec- 
essary reform.  But  the  Lecture  produced  a  marked 
effect.  At  that  time  there  was  certainly  not  more  than 
one  well-known  school  which  had  a  '  Science  Master  ' ; 
now  there  is  scarcely  a  school  of  note  which  has  not. 
Then  the  '  Latin  verse '  system  —  which  for  most  boys 
was  almost  abysmally  useless,  or  which,  at  the  best, 
only  produced  very  indirect  results  —  was  in  all  but 
universal  practice  :  now  it  is  almost  entirely  abandoned. 
This  is  not  the  only  battle  in  my  life  in  which  outbursts 
of  ridicule  and  anathema  have  been  wholly  fruitless  to 
hinder  progress  in  a  cause  which  I  had  ventured  to 
plead  at  a  time  when  it  was  new  and  entirely  unpopular. 
I  had  one  reward  in  the  lifelong  pleasure  of  enjoying 
some  intercourse  with  men  who  hailed  my  advocacy  with 


104  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


the  highest  approval.  It  was  in  consequence  of  thte, 
and  events  which  followed,  that  I  first  received  the  fol- 
lowing very  interesting  letter  from  Mr.  Darwin.  He 
wrote :  — 

"'March  5,  1867. 

"  '  My  dear  .Sir  :  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for 
your  kind  present  of  your  Lecture.  We  have  read  it 
aloud  with  the  greatest  interest,  and  I  agree  to  every 
word.  I  admire  your  candour  and  wonderful  freedom 
from  prejudice  ;  for  I  feel  an  inward  conviction  that  if 
I  had  been  a  great  classical  scholar  I  should  never  have 
been  able  to  have  judged  fairly  on  the  subject.  As  it  is, 
I  am  one  of  the  root  and  branch  men,  and  would  leave 
classics  to  be  learnt  by  those  who  have  sufficient  zeal 
and  the  high  taste  requisite  for  their  appreciation.  You 
have  indeed  done  a  great  public  service  by  speaking  out 
so  boldly.  Scientific  men  might  rail  for  ever,  and  it 
would  only  be  said  that  they  railed  at  what  they  did  not 
understand.  I  was  at  school  at  Shrewsbury  under  a 
great  scholar,  Dr.  Butler.  I  learnt  absolutely  nothing 
except  by  amusing  myself  by  reading  and  experiment- 
ing in  chemistry.  Dr.  Butler  somehow  found  this  out, 
and  publicly  sneered  at  me  before  the  whole  school  for 
such  gross  waste  of  time.  I  remember  he  called  me 
a  Poco  curante,  which  not  understanding  1  thought  was 
a  dreadful  name. 

"  '  I  wish  you  had  shown  in  your  Lecture  how  science 
could  practically  be  taught  in  a  great  school.  I  have 
often  heard  it  objected  that  this  could  not  be  done,  and  I 
never  knew  what  to  say  in  answer.  I  heartily  hope  that 
you  may  live  to  see  your  zeal  and  labour  produce  good 
fruit ;  and  with  my  best  thanks,  I  remain,  my  dear  sir, 
"  '  Yours  very  sincerely, 

" '  Charles  Darwin.' 


HARROW  DAYS 


105 


"Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  wrote:  — 

"'7  New  Square,  Lincoln's  Inn,  March  27th. 

" '  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  have  read  your  Lecture  with 
very  great  delight.  I  thoroughly  go  with  you,  and  I 
feel  that  such  words  coming  from  such  a  quarter  and 
from  the  position  from  which  you  utter  them,  are  worth 
volumes  from  any  other.  I  know  how  much  public 
spirit  it  takes  for  any  one  in  the  place  you  hold  to  speak 
his  mind  independently,  but  such  expressions  of  yours 
make  it  easier  for  others  to  be  candid.  And  they  will 
be.  There  is  one  point  in  which  I  think  your  Lecture 
fails  to  be  consistent  with  itself.  The  style  in  which 
the  old  classical  system  is  condemned  by  you  is  in  a 
measure  its  own  justification.  It  may  fairly  claim  in 
the  felicity  of  expression  and  the  fulness  of  illustration 
and  reference  an  example  of  the  literary  value  of 
scholarly  training.  The  attack  on  scholarship  could 
only  have  come  from  a  scholar.  It  is  hit  by  a  shaft 
from  its  own  wing. 

" 1  Yours  ever  truly, 

" '  Frederic  Harrison.' 

"  My  Lecture  on  Public  School  Education  was  fol- 
lowed by  another,  on  January  31,  1868;  by  various 
papers  in  magazines;  by  various  speeches;  by  a  volume 
of  Essays 1  which  I  edited,  and  which  were  contributed 
by  Mr.  C.  S.  Parker,  M.P.,  Lord  Houghton,  Archdeacon 
Wilson,  Professor  Sedgwick,  Professor  Seeley,  Professor 
Hales,  and  myself.  But  perhaps  the  chief  effect  of  the 
initiative  I  had  taken  was  that  I  was  asked  to  read  a 

1  Sc. :  "  Essays  on  a  Liberal  Education."  [The  Essay  on  "  Greek  and 
Latin  Verse  Composition  as  a  General  Branch  of  Education  "  is  by  the 
editor.] 


io6  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


paper  on  the  subject  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation in  Nottingham,  1867.  At  the  reading  of  that 
paper  many  scientific  men  were  present.  The  British 
Association  granted  my  request  to  form  a  Committee  on 
the  subject  of  Public  School  Education.  The  members 
of  the  Committee  were  Professors  Tyndall  and  Huxley, 
Archdeacon  Wilson  (then  a  Master  at  Rugby),  the  late 
Sir  G.  Grove,  Mr.  Griffiths,  secretary  of  the  Associa- 
tion, and  myself.  I  remember  a  delightful  dinner  at 
my  house  at  Harrow,  at  which,  among  others,  Tyndall, 
Huxley,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  were  present,  when 
we  discussed  the  subject.  Another  of  our  meetings  was 
at  Professor  Huxley's,  where  we  dined,  and  where  I 
remember  that  Sir  G.  Grove,  illustrating  the  general 
ignorance  of  the  most  ordinary  matters  of  science,  said 
that  he  had  once  vainly  challenged  any  one  of  a  society 
of  gentlemen  to  tell  him  accurately  the  difference  be- 
tween a  barometer  and  a  thermometer !  As  a  result  of 
the  discussion,  Archdeacon  Wilson  and  I  drew  up  a 
report,  which  was  freely  annotated  by  the  other  mem- 
bers, especially  by  Professor  Tyndall. 

"  This  report  was  accepted  and  printed  by  the  British 
Association.  The  consensus  of  opinion  in  favour  of  our 
views  grew  constantly  stronger,  and  the  futile  character 
of  the  old  public-school  curriculum  has  been  so  far 
amended  that  it  is  no  longer  a  subject  of  regret  and 
complaint." 

Concurrently  with  his  other  work,  my  father  was 
much  engaged  at  this  period  in  philological  studies.  In 
i860  he  published  "An  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Lan- 
guage," based  on  modern  researches  and  especially  on 
the  works  of  M.  Renan;  in  1865,  "Chapters  on  Lan- 
guage"; in  1870,  "Families  of  Speech,  Four  Lectures 
delivered  before  the  Royal  Institution  of  Great  Britain 


HARROW  DAYS 


in  March,  1869."  In  1878  the  "Chapters  on  Lan- 
guage "  and  "  Families  of  Speech  "  were  reprinted  in 
a  single  volume,  "  Language  and  Languages." 

His  "Origin  of  Language"  attracted  the  notice  of 
Charles  Darwin,  who  was  so  much  struck  by  the  book  that 
in  1866  he  proposed  my  father  for  the  Fellowship  of  the 
Royal  Society,  to  which  he  was  duly  elected.  In  this 
distinction,  which  is  not  often  attained  by  those  whose 
sphere  is  literature  rather  than  natural  science,  he  felt 
a  justifiable  pride. 

In  this  connection  the  following  letter  which  my 
father  received  from  Darwin  is  of  interest :  — 

"  Down,  Bromley,  Kent,  November  2. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  As  I  have  never  studied  the  science 
of  language,  it  may,  perhaps,  be  presumptuous,  but  I 
cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of  telling  you  what  interest 
and  pleasure  I  have  derived  from  hearing  read  aloud 
t  your  volume. 

"  I  formerly  read  Max  M idler,  and  thought  his  theory 
(if  it  deserves  to  be  called  so)  both  obscure  and  weak ; 
and  now,  after  hearing  what  you  say,  I  feel  sure  that 
this  is  the  case,  and  that  your  cause  will  ultimately 
triumph. 

"  My  indirect  interest  in  your  book  has  been  increased 
from  Mr.  Hensleigh  Wedgwood,  whom  you  often  quote, 
being  my  brother-in-law. 

"  No  one  could  dissent  from  my  views  on  the  modifi- 
cation of  species  with  more  courtesy  than  you  do.  But 
from  the  tenor  of  your  mind,  I  feel  an  entire  and  com- 
fortable conviction  (and  which  cannot  possibly  be  dis- 
turbed), that,  if  your  studies  led  you  to  attend  much  to 
general  questions  in  Natural  History,  you  would  come 
to  the  same  conclusions  that  I  have  done. 


io8 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  Have  you  ever  read  Huxley's  little  book  of  Six  Lec- 
tures ?  I  would  gladly  send  you  a  copy  if  you  think  you 
would  read  it.  Considering  what  geology  teaches  us,  the 
argument  for  the  supposed  immutability  of  specific  types 
seems  to  me  much  the  same  as  if,  in  a  nation  which  had 
no  old  writings,  some  wise  old  savage  was  to  say  that 
his  language  had  never  changed ;  but  my  metaphor  is 
too  long  to  fill  up. 

"  Pray  believe  me,  dear  sir,  yours  very  sincerely 

obHSed'  «Ch.  Darwin." 

Though  an  evolutionist  in  philology,  my  father,  who, 
of  course,  made  no  claim  to  be  a  biologist,  never  fully 
accepted  the  Darwinian  theory  of  evolution  in  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  inclining  to  the  belief  that  species  were 
immutable.  But  he  imported  no  "  odium  theologicum  " 
into  the  discussion,  and  always  regarded  the  question 
of  the  evolution  of  species  as  an  open  one  to  be  decided 
on  purely  scientific  grounds.    He  thus  writes  :  — 

"  Acknowledging  his  gift  of  the  '  Descent  of  Man,' 
I  said  that  one  insuperable  difficulty  in  the  acceptance 
of  his  theories  was,  that  from  all  I  had  ever  read  about 
Anthropology,  and  from  all  my  studies  in  Comparative 
Philology,  it  seemed  to  me  indisputable  that  different 
germs  of  language  and  different  types  of  race  were 
traceable  from  the  farthest  prehistoric  days.  The  argu- 
ment has,  since  then,  been  indefinitely  strengthened  by 
the  discovery  of  the  earliest  known  skulls  and  remains 
of  primeval  races,  which  show  that,  even  in  those  im- 
measurably distant  days,  there  were  higher  and  lower 
types  of  humanity.  Mr.  Darwin  admitted  the  fact,  but 
made  this  very  striking  answer :  — 

"  '  You  are  arguing  from  the  last  page  of  a  volume  of 
many  thousands  of  pages' 


HARROW  DAYS 


109 


"  When  Darwin  died,  I  happened  to  see  Professor 
Huxley  and  Mr.  W.  Spottiswoode  in  deep  and  earnest 
conversation  at  the  Athenaeum.  I  asked  them  why  no 
memorial  had  been  sent  to  the  Dean  of  Westminster, 
requesting  that  one  who  had  been  an  honour  to  his  age 
should  be  buried  in  the  great  historic  Abbey.  1  There 
is  nothing  which  we  should  like  so  much,'  said  Professor 
Huxley.  '  Nothing  would  be  more  fitting ;  it  is  the  sub- 
ject on  which  we  were  talking.  But  we  did  not  mean  to 
make  the  request,  for  we  felt  sure  it  would  be  refused.' 
I  replied,  with  a  smile,  '  that  we  clergy  were  not  all  so 
bigoted  as  he  supposed ' ;  and  that,  though  I  had  no 
authority  to  answer  for  the  Dean,  I  felt  no  doubt  that,  if 
a  memorial  were  sent  to  him,  the  permission  would  be 
accorded.  I  said  that  I  would  consult  the  Dean,  and 
let  them  know  at  once.  Leave  was  given.  I  was  asked 
to  be  one  of  the  pall-bearers,  with  nine  men  of  much 
greater  distinction  —  Sir  J.  Lubbock,  Professor  Huxley, 
Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell,  Mr.  A.  R.  Wallace,  the  Dukes  of 
Devonshire  and  Argyll,  the  late  Earl  of  Derby,  Sir  J. 
Hooker,  and  Mr.  W.  Spottiswoode ;  and  on  the  Sunday 
evening  I  preached  at  the  Nave  Service  the  funeral 
sermon  of  the  great  author  of  '  the  Darwinian  hypothe- 
sis.' Ecclesiasticism  was  offended  ;  but  if  what  God 
requires  of  us  is  '  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  Him,'  I  would  rather  take  my  chance 
in  the  future  life  with  such  a  man  as  Charles  Darwin, 
than  with  many  thousands  who,  saying,  '  Lord,  Lord,' 
and  wearing  the  broadest  of  phylacteries,  show  very 
faint  conceptions  of  honour,  kindness,  or  the  love  of 
truth,  and  are  sadly  to  seek  in  the  most  elementary 
Christian  virtues." 

In  his  funeral  sermon  he  thus  spoke  of  Darwin :  — 
"  This  man,  on  whom  for  years  bigotry  and  ignorance 


no  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

poured  out  their  scorn,  has  been  called  a  materialist.  I 
do  not  see  in  all  his  writings  one  trace  of  materialism. 
I  read  in  every  line  the  healthy,  noble,  well-balanced 
wonder  of  a  spirit  profoundly  reverent,  kindled  into 
deepest  admiration  for  the  works  of  God.  .  .  .  Calm 
in  the  consciousness  of  integrity ;  happy  in  sweetness 
of  home  life ;  profoundly  modest ;  utterly  unselfish  ;  ex- 
quisitely genial ;  manifesting,  as  his  friend  has  said  of 
him,  '  an  intense  and  passionate  honesty,  by  which  all 
his  thoughts  and  actions  were  irradiated  as  by  a  central 
fire,'  —  Charles  Darwin  will  take  his  place,  side  by  side, 
with  Ray  and  Linnaeus ;  with  Newton  and  Pascal ;  with 
Herschel  and  Faraday,  —  among  those  who  have  not 
only  served  humanity  by  their  genius,  but  have  also 
brightened  its  ideal  by  holy  lives.  .  .  .  And  because 
these  false  antagonisms  have  been  infinitely  dangerous 
to  faith,  over  Darwin's  grave  let  us  once  more  assure 
the  students  of  science  that,  for  us,  the  spirit  of  mediaeval 
ecclesiasticism  is  dead.  We  desire  the  light.  We  believe 
in  the  light.  We  press  forward  into  the  light.  If  need 
be,  let  us  perish  in  the  light.  But  we  know  that  in  the 
light  we  shall  never  perish.  For  to  us  God  is  light; 
and  Christ  is,  and  will  be,  to  the  end,  1  the  Light  of  the 
World.'  " 

I  may  here  introduce  a  fragment  from  "  Men  I  Have 
Known,"  reminiscent  of  my  father's  friendship  with 
another  great  biologist,  Thomas  Huxley:  — 

"  I  continued  to  know  and  to  meet  Professor  Huxley 
for  many  years  and  on  many  occasions.  I  sometimes 
met  him  in  company  with  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  and 
nothing  could  be  more  delightful  than  the  conversation 
elicited  by  their  contrasted  individualities.  I  remember 
a  walk  which  I  once  took  with  them  both  through  the 
pleasant  grounds  of  Pain's  Hill,  where  Mr.  Arnold's 


HARROW  DAYS 


in 


cottage  was.  He  was  asking  Huxley  whether  he  liked 
going  out  to  dinner  parties,  and  the  Professor  answered 
that  as  a  rule  he  did  not  like  it  at  all.  '  Ah,'  said  Mr. 
Arnold,  '  I  rather  like  it.  It  is  rather  nice  to  meet 
people.'  1  Oh  yes,'  replied  Huxley,  '  but  we  are  not 
all  such  everlasting  Cupids  as  you ! ' 

"  I  sometimes  had  very  earnest  and  delightful  conver- 
sations with  Professor  Huxley  on  religious  subjects,  and 
I  always  found  him  perfectly  open-minded,  reverent,  and 
candid.  But  in  his  case,  as  in  the  case  of  other  eminent 
men  of  science  and  literature,  I  found  that  his  concep- 
tions as  to  what  the  clergy  are  bound  to  believe  and 
maintain  were  exceedingly  wide  of  the  mark.  He 
imagined  that  we  are  compelled  to  defend  a  great  many 
opinions,  especially  with  reference  to  parts  of  the  Old 
Testament,  which  might  possibly  have  represented  the 
views  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  but  which  are  now  repu- 
diated even  by  learned  archbishops  and  bishops.  When 
I  showed  him  that  some  difficulties  and  objections  to 
parts  of  the  Christian  creed  which  loomed  large  upon 
his  mind  had  no  connection  with  the  faith  at  all  —  that 
they  affected  beliefs  which  had  never  been  incorporated 
into  any  catholic  formula  —  that  some  of  the  statements 
which  he  impugned  were  the  mere  accretions  of  igno- 
rance, the  errors  of  superstition,  and  the  inventions  of 
erring  system,  he  would  listen  indeed  with  sincere  inter- 
est, and  promise  to  consider  the  points  of  view  which  I 
had  tried  to  explain,  but  which  were  wholly  new  to  him. 
I  always  fancied  that  he  retained  the  notion  that,  while 
what  I  urged  might  represent  the  views  of  a  few  of  the 
clergy,  they  were  the  reverse  of  the  views  of  the  many. 
I  failed,  I  fear,  to  convince  him  that  Christianity  is  one 
thing,  and  that  current  opinions  about  Christianity  may 
be  quite  another.    But  conversations  with  him  left  on 


112 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


my  mind  the  deep  impression  that  what  many  men  dis- 
like is  not  in  the  least  the  doctrine  and  the  revelation 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  something  which  has  no 
necessary  connection  with  it,  and  is  sometimes  a  mere 
mummy  painted  in  its  guise." 

The  range  of  my  father's  studies  and  the  breadth  of 
his  views  is  further  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  about 
this  period,  viz.  in  1867,  he  found  time  to  write  "Seekers 
after  God,"  a  popular  historical  account  of  three  great 
heathen  philosophers,  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus 
Aurelius,  "  who  amid  infinite  difficulties,  and  surrounded 
by  a  corrupt  society,  devoted  themselves  to  the  earnest 
search  after  those  truths  which  might  best  make  their 
lives  'beautiful  before  God.'" 

Two  volumes  of  sermons,  also,  "  The  Fall  of  Man, 
and  Other  Sermons  preached  before  the  University  of 
Cambridge,"  1867,  and  "The  Witness  of  History  to 
Christ :  Five  Sermons,  being  the  Hulsean  Lectures  for 
1870,"  belong  to  the  Harrow  period,  besides  single  ser- 
mons, lectures,  and  articles,  —  a  record  which  shows  an 
amazing  power  of  work  and  concentration  in  a  man 
who  was  all  this  time  actively  engaged  in  the  onerous 
duties  of  a  schoolmaster,  responsible  not  only  for  routine 
teaching  in  school,  but  for  private  tuition,  and  the  care 
of  a  house  full  of  boys. 

In  1869  he  was  appointed  an  Honorary  Chaplain  to 
the  Queen,  a  distinction  to  which  very  few  men  in  the 
position  of  Assistant  Master  at  a  public  school  have 
attained.  He  was  promoted  to  be  Chaplain-in-Ordinary 
in  1873. 

In  connection  with  one  of  his  articles  for  "  Smith's 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  he  tells  the  following  story :  — 

"  I  had  been  asked  to  write  the  article  on  '  Deluge ' 
for  Smith's  '  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.'    I  wrote  it,  but 


HARROW  DAYS 


ii3 


took  the  views  about  the  non-universality  of  the  Deluge 
which  most  inquirers  now  hold.  The  editor  and  pub- 
lishers, alarmed  at  this  deviation  from  stereotyped  opin- 
ion, postponed  the  insertion  of  the  article,  and  in  vol.  i. 
inserted,  '  Deluge  :  see  Flood.'  But  even  when  they 
had  got  as  far  as  '  Flood '  they  had  not  made  up  their 
minds,  and  said,  '  Flood :  see  Noah.'  My  article  was 
consequently  sacrificed ;  for  '  Noah '  had  been  already 
assigned  to  the  present  Bishop  of  Worcester.  Yet, 
after  all,  Dr.  Perowne  (as  he  then  was)  came  to  much 
the  same  conclusion  as  myself;  for  he  wrote,  'that  even 
the  language  used  with  regard  to  the  Flood  itself  — 
strong  as  it  undoubtedly  is  —  does  not  oblige  us  to  sup- 
pose that  the  Deluge  was  universal" 

Unless  we  realise  the  extent  to  which  current  theo- 
logical opinion  has  been  revolutionised  in  the  last  forty 
years,  —  a  change  which  has  been  due  in  no  small  meas- 
ure to  the  fearless  advocacy  of  my  father  and  a  mere 
handful  of  men  like-minded,  —  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand the  storm  of  obloquy  which  the  very  mild  rational- 
ism of  Bishop  Colenso  excited  in  the  early  sixties.  In 
these  days  when  the  notorious  Cape  Town  judgment 
is  forgotten,  and  when  what  was  regarded  as  blasphe- 
mous heresy  by  our  fathers  has  become  a  commonplace 
article  of  belief  for  ourselves,  it  is  not  easy  to  appreciate 
the  courage  required,  a  generation  ago,  to  take  up  the 
cudgels  for  this  God-fearing  and  saintly  Divine. 

I  therefore  insert  here  some  passages  from  my 
father's  "  Reminiscences  of  Bishop  Colenso,"  which 
throw  an  interesting  light  both  on  the  Broad  Church 
views  of  the  subject  of  this  biography,  and  the  tendency 
of  thought  in  the  last  generation  :  — 

"  Indignant  at  the  utterly  shameful  treatment  which 
he  was  receiving  at  all  hands,  and  glad  to  show  my 


ii4  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


humble  sympathy  with  a  noble-hearted  man,  conspicuous 
for  the  ardent  and  fearless  sincerity  of  his  love  of  truth, 
I  wrote  to  ask  him  to  stay  with  me  at  Harrow.  He  had 
himself  in  former  days  been  a  Harrow  Master,  and  he 
intensely  enjoyed  one  or  two  quiet  and  happy  Sundays 
with  us.  In  those  days,  if  a  Bishop  happened  to  be 
present  in  Harrow  School  Chapel,  it  was  the  custom  to 
ask  him  to  pronounce  the  benediction.  Bishop  Colenso 
did  so ;  and  will  it  be  believed  that  numbers  of  letters 
came  from  parents,  objecting  that  their  sons  should  be 
blessed  by  one  whom,  in  their  utter  ignorance  of  all  the 
merits  of  the  questions  involved,  they  chose,  with  great 
injustice,  to  stigmatise  as  a  heretic  !  The  burden  of  this 
.  disagreeable  correspondence  fell,  not  on  me  but  on  the 
Head-master ;  and  consequently,  when  next  the  Bishop 
wrote  to  offer  himself  for  a  Sunday,  I  had,  with  the 
deepest  regret,  to  ask  him  to  come  on  a  week-day  in- 
stead. The  persecution  he  incurred  —  which  even  went 
to  the  length  of  an  impotent  attempt  to  deprive  him  of 
his  bishopric,  and  to  reduce  him  to  the  condition  of  a 
pauper  by  robbing  him  of  his  income  —  was  as  incredi- 
ble as  it  was  infamous.  I  well  remember  his  telling  me 
that  he  found  it  by  no  means  easy  to  get  servants ;  and 
that  his  laundress  had  actually  declined  to  wash  for  him 
any  more,  because  by  doing  so  she  lost  customers  !  I  re- 
member, too,  that  once  when  I  had  been  preaching  in  a 
large  West  End  church,  the  Bishop  invited  me  to  his 
house,  and  I  walked  out  of  the  church  with  him,  he 
taking  my  arm.  As  his  tall  form  was  seen  amid  the 
throng  of  worshippers,  he  was  recognised  as  he  left  the 
church,  and  I  heard  audible  and  awestruck  whispers, 
'He's  walking  with  Bishop  Colenso  /'  He  faced  this 
tornado  of  abuse,  and  these  hurricanes  of  universal 
anathema,  with  the  calmest  dignity.    He  never  once 


HARROW  DAYS 


ii5 


lost  his  temper;  he  never  returned  so  much  as  one 
angry  word  to  men  who  had  heaped  on  him  every 
species  of  abuse  and  contempt,  and  of  whom  many  were 
incomparably  his  inferiors,  not  only  in  learning,  but  in 
every  grace. 

"A  touch  of  humour  helped  him.  He  told  me  how, 
once,  seeing  an  English  bishop  at  Euston  Station,  the 
Bishop,  to  his  great  surprise,  advanced  most  cordially 
to  meet  him,  and  gave  him  a  warm  shake  of  the  hand, 
which  Colenso  as  warmly  returned.  But,  alas  !  the  next 
moment  the  English  prelate  said,  'The  Bishop  of  Cal- 
cutta, I  believe  ? '  (or  some  other  see). 

"'  No,'  replied  Colenso,  'the  Bishop  of  Natal.'  The 
effect,  he  said,  was  electrical.  The  English  bishop  almost 
rebounded  with  an  '  Oh ! '  and  left  him  with  a  much 
alarmed  and  distant  bow,  as  if  after  shaking  hands  with 
him  he  needed  a  purifying  bath. 

******* 

"  Bishops  and  ecclesiastics  denounced  and  excom- 
municated him  ;  and  others  wrote  epigrams  like  — 

*  There  was  a  poor  Bishop  Colenso, 
Who  counted  from  one  up  to  ten,  so 
That  the  writings  Levitical 
He  found  were  uncritical, 
And  went  out  to  tell  the  black  men  so. 

Yet  the  Bishop  of  Natal  had  written,  with  utter  self- 
sacrifice,  at  the  cost  of  all,  for  the  sake  of  what  he  re- 
garded as  the  truth.  When  questioned  about  the  literal 
accuracy  of  parts  of  Scripture,  which  were  perhaps 
never  meant  to  be  literally  understood,  '  My  heart,'  he 
says,  'answered  in  the  words  of  the  prophet,  Shall  a 
man  speak  lies  in  the  name  of  the  Lord?  I  dare  not  do 
so.'    Future  times  will  remember  Bishop  Colenso  with 


u6  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


honour  and  gratitude  when  the  names  of  nineteen- 
twentieths  of  his  accusers  have  been  buried  in  merciful 
oblivion." 

With  characteristic  generous  impetuosity  my  father 
threw  himself  into  the  work  of  organising  a  Colenso 
defence  fund,  in  connection  with  which  the  following 
letters  from  Dr,  Jex  Blake  and  from  Bishop  Colenso 
himself  are  of  interest :  — 

"Rugby,  Feb.  26,  1864. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  Do  not  be  in  such  a  hurry.  I 
came  back  from  Oxford  this  afternoon,  having  spoken 
to  a  good  many  men  there  about  Colenso  Appeal  Fund. 
I  found  no  one,  except  Jowett,  inclined  to  go  in  for  the 
Fund  as  at  present  started.  I  found  a  good  many 
people  prepared  to  join  in  an  effort  to  bring  "  in  the 
interests  of  justice"  the  Cape  Town  trial  before  a 
superior  court.  Speaking  generally,  people  had  a 
distrust  of  Colenso,  and  were  prepared  to  help  him  as 
a  victim  but  not  as  a  champion.  I  hope  that  Spottis- 
woode  will  be  able  either  to  get  a  more  satisfactory 
preamble  to  the  present  list  altogether,  or  a  separate 
column  for  men  who  like  myself  wish  to  subscribe  on 
the  ground  of  protest  against  Cape  Town  verdict.  Or 
failing  that,  I  hope  a  separate  list  may  be  got  up  on 
that  basis :  and  that  such  a  list  may  help  Colenso,  and 
be  a  comfort  to  him. 

"  Names  are  likely  to  be  '  conspicuous  by  absence  '  if 
the  movers  of  a  Defence  Fund  omit  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  wishes  of  a  large  part  of  the  few  clerics 
who  at  all  sympathise  with  them ;  and  as  regards 
Temple  himself,  he  would  probably  say  that  men  must 
not  set  up  to  be  religious  innovators  who  cannot  stand 
the  burden  of  temporary  isolation.    He  might  also  be 


HARROW  DAYS 


117 


inclined  to  add  that  few  things  so  unbusiness-like  in 
their  proceedings  as  the  Colenso  Defence  Fund  appears 
at  present  to  be,  find  things  go  smoothly  with  them. 

"  You  must  give  people  time ;  and  a  few  names  had 
better  not  be  paraded  prematurely.  Still  less  will  it  pay 
to  publish  anonymous  '  Priest  of  41  years'  standing.' 
Please  let  Bowen  see  these  few  lines,  as  my  work  is  in 
arrears  and  I  really  have  not  time  for  a  duplicate  letter. 

"We  shall  be  very  glad  to  see  you  at  Easter. 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"  T.  W.  Jex  Blake." 

"May  6,  1864. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  have  been  thinking  that  I  had 
better  not  accept  the  invitation  to  Harrow  this  year, 
under  present  circumstances.  I  don't  doubt  that  I  , 
should  have  a  friendly  reception,  perhaps  even  a  hearty 
one,  from  the  school.  But  after  the  experience  of  last 
year,  some  parents  may  feel  very  strongly  on  the  sub- 
ject—  and  it  would  be  a  pity  to  expose  the  school  to 
the  danger  of  suffering  from  too  close  a  connection  with 
me.  Unless,  therefore,  you  strongly  urge  the  contrary, 
I  intend  to  decline  Dr.  Butler's  invitation,  if  it  comes. 

"  Ever  yours  sincerely, 

"M.  Natal." 


In  i860,  at  Easter-tide,  and  shortly  after  his  sainted 
mother's  death,  Frederic  Farrar  met  and  loved  at  first 
sight  a  sweet  and  beautiful  girl  of  nineteen,  Lucy  Mary, 
third  daughter  of  the  late  Mr.  Frederic  Cardew  of  the 
East  India  Company's  service.  They  were  married 
before  the  end  of  the  year,  and  for  forty-three  years  of 


n8  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


love  unbroken  trod  the  path  of  wedded  life  in  mutual 
society,  help,  and  comfort. 

What  my  mother  was  as  gracious  hostess,  sympathetic 
counsellor,  and  affectionate  friend,  old  Harrovians,  old 
Marlburians,  Westminster  parishioners,  and  dwellers  in 
Canterbury  who  loved  and  almost  idolised  her,  have 
testified ;  of  her  virtues  as  mistress  and  ideal  housewife, 
Cooper  and  Frances  who  died  in  our  service,  Nana  and 
Gauron  who  are  still  with  us,  and  other  old  servants 
who  have  served  her  with  lifelong  devotion  could  speak  ; 
what  she  has  been  and  is  as  mother,  we,  her  children, 
who  rise  and  call  her  blessed,  know,  but  could  never 
fully  express.  What  she  was  as  a  wife  is  a  theme  too 
sacred  for  her  son  to  handle  in  these  pages,  but  those 
who  call  to  mind  the  image  of  my  father  in  his  home 
life  will  ever  see  at  his  side  the  tender  and  gracious 
figure  of  her  whose  adorning  was  the  ornament  of  a 
meek  and  quiet  spirit,  of  a  woman  loving  and  amiable, 
faithful  and  obedient  to  her  husband ;  in  all  quietness, 
sobriety,  and  peace,  a  follower  of  holy  and  godly  matrons. 

Eight  children  were  born  during  the  Harrow  period, 
the  two  youngest,  Percival  and  Ivor,  being  born  at 
Marlborough. 

In  1868  my  parents  moved  from  a  much  smaller 
house  at  Harrow  to  the  Park,  which  my  father  thus 
describes  :  — 

"The  Park  had  once  been  the  seat  of  Lord  North- 
wick,  and  before  it  was  built  over  as  it  now  is,  was  a  very 
beautiful  place.  It  stood  in  its  own  grounds  of  thirty- 
six  acres,  with  fields  and  a  home  farm  in  the  midst  of 
them.  A  wooded  walk,  shady  in  the  hottest  summer 
day,  ran  round  it,  full  of  speedwell,  enchanter's  night- 
shade, agrimony,  and  other  wild  plants.  The  Park  cov- 
ered one  side  of  Harrow  Hill.     It  commanded  lovely 


HARROW  DAYS 


119 


views  and  was  adorned  with  some  rather  effective 
modern-antique  ruins.  At  the  bottom  of  the  hill  was  a 
sheet  of  water,  on  which  we  placed  some  canoes  and 
some  swans.  There  were  nearly  sixty  Harrow  boys  in 
our  house,  but  they  were  separated  from  us  in  another 
part  of  the  building.  It  was  a  charming  and  healthy 
home  for  children.  The  farm  supplied  them  with  eggs 
and  milk,  and  gave  them  plenty  of  amusement  when 
they  went  down  to  play  with  the  swans,  or  the  huge 
mastiff,  or  the  tame  pigeons.  The  large  kitchen  garden 
supplied  the  house  abundantly  with  all  kinds  of  fruit 
and  vegetables,  and  the  vine  in  the  hothouse  was  laden 
with  grapes." 

In  this  house  my  father  was  free  to  exercise  that 
simple  but  refined  hospitality  in  which  he  always  took 
delight,  making  many  friends,  not  only  among  his  col- 
leagues, with  all  of  whom  he  was  on  cordial,  and  with 
many  on  intimate  terms,  but  among  the  parents  of  his 
boys  and  with  many  men  eminent  in  literature,  science, 
and  art. 

Such  was  my  father  in  his  Harrow  days,  a  man  be- 
loved by  his  boys,  though  they  sometimes  made  fun  of 
his  impetuous  enthusiasms,  honoured  and  trusted  by  the 
parents  who  were  glad  and  proud  to  confide  their  sons 
to  his  care ;  loved  and  honoured  by  his  colleagues,  who 
were  generously  proud  of  his  growing  fame  ;  laborious 
in  acquiring  and  eager  in  imparting  his  growing  store 
of  learning  ;  throwing  himself  with  ardent  and  even  well- 
nigh  reckless  chivalry  into  all  causes  which  make  for 
progress  and  increased  breadth  of  thought ;  displaying 
at  times  a  certain  impatience,  which  old  friends  recall 
with  a  regretful  tenderness ;  but  animated  always  by  a 
fiery  zeal  for  righteousness  and  a  passionate  hatred  of 
all  that  is  mean  or  false  or  vile. 


120  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


From  a  large  number  of  letters  I  have  selected  a  few 
illustrative  of  the  Harrow  period. 

Here  is  one  from  a  parent :  — 

"  Dear  Dr.  Butler  :  I  find  from  my  boys  that  the 
fact  of  Mr.  Farrar's  having  succeeded  to  Mr.  Harris's 
house,  etc.,  will  in  the  natural  course  of  things  remove 
Theobald  from  his  tuition. 

"  I  am  in  utter  despair  at  the  idea,  and  so  I  find  is 
Theobald. 

"  It  will  be  very,  very  good  of  you  to  allow  Theobald 
to  be  still  his  pupil  and  arrange  with  Mr.  Farrar  that 
he  shall  keep  him  on. 

"  I  assure  you,  all  my  boys  have  the  greatest  possible 
regard,  esteem,  respect,  and  affection  for  him,  and  he 
possesses  an  influence  over  them  which  I  feel  it  would 
be  very  difficult  for  any  one  else  to  acquire,  and  Theo- 
bald having  been  so  long  his  pupil !  Could  not  and 
would  you  not  make  an  exception  in  his  favour  ?  If  you 
are  so  good  as  to  grant  it,  I  am  certain  from  gratitude  it 
will  be  an  additional  incentive  to  Theobald  to  be  steady 
at  his  work  and  to  get  on. 

"  I  am  sure  that  you  will  kindly  remember  that  my 
three  youngest  boys  have  never  had  any  other  tutor  but 
Mr.  Farrar,  that  it  was  by  your  own  appointment  that 
they  had  the  privilege,  and  the  event  has  proved  how 
judicious  your  arrangement  was  by  the  influence  for 
good  which  he  has  exercised  over  them,  and  by  the  real 
affection  and  devotion  they  feel  for  him. 

"  With  my  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Butler, 
"  Believe  me, 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"A.  B." 


HARROW  DAYS  121 

Another  from  the  son  of  the  above  writer :  — 

"December  29th. 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Farrar  :  Hubert  showed  me  your 
letter  you  wrote  to  him  about  my  going  to  the  Univer- 
sity, —  that  is,  to  Oxford ;  Cambridge  is  simply  a  hole. 
I  am  sure  you  think  it  so  now.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  I 
shall  have  to  swat,  which  as  you  know  I  don't  like  at 
all.  But  then  if  I  could  make  up  my  mind  to  swat, 
and  took  a  pretty  good  degree  at  Oxford,  it  would  leave 
me  quite  free,  whereas  if  I  went  into  the  army  I  should 
have  to  stick  to  it.  You  think  I  had  better  go  to  Ox- 
ford. I  think  too,  it  will  be  best  on  the  whole.  Just 
fancy,  I  have  read  the  whole  of  that  Milton's  "  Para- 
dise Lost "  and  all  the  holiday  task  once ;  I  intend  to 
read  it  again.  I  mean  to  swat  like  fun  next  quarter, 
as  I  was  so  ashamed  of  the  place  I  took  last  quarter,  and 
'  Nil  desperandum  Farrar  duce  et  auspice  Farrar.' 

"  I  hope  Mrs.  Farrar  and  the  children  are  quite  well, 
and  believe  me  ever 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"A.  B." 

From  a  boy  who  had  been  expelled  :  — 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Farrar  :  Thank  you  very  much 
for  your  kindness  in  writing  to  me.  I  have  indeed 
begun  life  very  badly,  but  I  now  mean  to  turn  over  a 
new  leaf. 

"  It  was  very  kind  of  you  to  try  and  take  me  back  as 
you  have  so  often  before  forgiven  me.  All  my  endeav- 
ours shall  be  that  I  should  turn  out  a  good  man,  and  I 
sincerely  trust  that  your  kind  hope  of  seeing  me  again 
may  be  realised,  and  that  you  will  find  me  changed 
from  a  bad  boy  into  a  God-fearing  man.    Thank  Mrs. 


122  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Farrar  for  me  for  her  kind  message,  and  if  she  will 
accept  a  sad  farewell  from  me,  as  also  yourself,  I  shall 
feel  gratified. 

"  Believe  me 

"  Yours  sorrowfully. 

"  P.  S.  I  have  received  all  my  things,  for  which  I 
thank  you.  I  left  a  small  prayer-book  in  chapel.  If  it 
will  not  give  you  trouble,  may  I  ask  you  to  send  it  me  ? " 

From  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham  :  — 

"Harrow. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  rejoice  to  see  your  volume 
of  sermons.  They  cannot  but  do  good.  Some  I  know  ; 
some  I  hope  to  know  :  and  all  are  alike  welcome.  We 
probably  differ  in  some  opinions  and  approach  many 
questions  from  different  sides,  but  I  should  be  unwilling 
to  think  that  we  do  not  agree  fully  as  to  the  scope  of 
life,  and  the  strength  of  life ;  and  in  that  fellowship  of 
highest  aspiration  and  faith  all  lesser  differences  are  as 
nothing.  Almost  every  day  makes  me  feel  more  keenly 
that  it  is  not  the  work  that  is  seen  that  is  most  fruitful 
and  that  all  earthly  measures  fail  in  spiritual  things,  and 
there  is  deep  consolation  in  the  thought. 

"  With  sincerest  thanks  for  the  volume,  and  every  wish 
for  the  full  continuance  of  your  great  work  among  us, 
"  Ever  yours  most  truly, 

"  B.  F.  Westcott." 

From  the  late  Dean  of  Llandaff  :  — 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  must  not  insult  you  by  com- 
pliments upon  your  sermon  of  yesterday :  but  neither 
can  I  leave  you  without  the  expression  of  the  deep  debt 
of  gratitude  which  I  feel  myself  to  owe  you  for  such  a 


HARROW  DAYS 


123 


noble  effort  for  the  good  of  souls.  I  cannot  doubt  that 
it  will  be  remembered  by  many,  as  it  was  listened  to 
with  profound  attention  by  all. 

"  The  time  will  come,  I  hope,  when  you  will  publish 
that  sermon  with  others.  Perhaps  a  sermon  published 
by  itself  does  not  possess  the  permanence  of  character 
which  one  would  desire  for  it :  but  I  am  sure  that,  when 
the  time  comes  for  publishing  a  volume  of  sermons,  you 
will  not  find  them  passed  by. 

"  Ever,  my  dear  Farrar, 

"  Yours  truly  and  affectionately, 

"  Charles  T.  Vaughan. 

"  Harrow,  Monday. 

"  Do  not  trouble  yourself  to  write  in  answer.  I  only 
send  this,  because  it  is  a  comfort  sometimes  to  be  assured 
that  one  has  not  preached  to  inattentive  or  unsympa- 
thising  hearers." 

From  the  present  Master  of  Trinity:  — 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  must  not  let  the  Sunday 
night  quite  pass  without  heartily  thanking  you  for  your 
most  valuable  sermon. 

"  I  think  we  greatly  wanted  to  have  your  main  point 
put  before  us,  and  I  could  not  have  wished  to  have  it 
put  more  beautifully,  convincingly,  and  solemnly. 

"  We  have  both  of  us  lived  too  long  to  expect  to  see 
any  very  immediate  or  palpably  extensive  effects  from 
sermons.  The  listlessness  of  the  Harrow  boys  will,  I 
fear,  continue  to  be  our  thorn  in  the  flesh  as  long  as  we 
continue  to  labour  together  here.  But  I  nevertheless 
believe  that  your  words  will  have  touched  many  a  con- 
science and  that  they  will  come  back  to  such  in  listless 


124  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


hours,  partly  here,  partly  in  college  rooms,  partly  in  the 
days  of  professional  life. 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  our  material  here  illustrates  most 
strongly  the  '  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  '  — 
How  hardly  shall  the  sons  of  parents,  the  majority  of 
whom  are  probably  men  of  easy  means,  learn  to  regard 
exertion  as  at  once  a  duty  and  a  happiness ! 

"  Still  there  is  a  considerable  remnant  of  non-idolaters 
if  not  of  heroic  Abdiels.  The  seven  Harrow  firsts  in 
the  last  Trinity  May  was  a  good  sign  —  not  less  good 

because  it  was  not  brilliant.     S          and  P   are 

working  thoroughly  hard  there;  so  I  fancy  is  P  

and  dear  good  C  . 

"  Here  all  the  first  seven  are  working  at  high  pressure, 
and  apparently  with  great  interest,  unless  it  be  possibly 

the  ill-adjusted  A  .    He  broke  down  deplorably  in 

the  Demosthenes  last  week,  no  less  than  twice. 

"This  must  read  like  a  rambling  letter,  but  I  think 
you  may  trace  a  certain  unity  running  through  it.  God 
bless  you  always,  dear  friend. 

"  Affectionately  as  ever, 

"  H.  Montagu  Butler. 

"Harrow,  March  16,  1862,  11  p.m." 

A  humorous  letter  in  rhyme,  from  his  colleague, 
E.  H.  Bradby:  — 

"  Harrow,  August  9,  '6i. 

"  Dear  Farrar,  I  grieve  to  disquiet  your  rest, 
Or  mar  your  ruricolar  ease, 
But  truth  fairly  spoken  must  always  be  best, 
Though  it  fail  at  the  moment  to  please. 

When  you  left  it,  your  house  had  a  scaffold  in  front, 
And  now  could  you  see  it,  you'd  find  — 


HARROW  DAYS 


Of  your  wrath  let  the  builder  encounter  the  brunt  — 
A  scaffold  just  like  it  behind. 

Thus  for  decapitation  on  both  sides  prepared, 

Is  the  victim  put  out  of  its  pain  ? 
No  —  to  mark  execution  the  public  have  stared, 

And  waited  and  clamoured  in  vain. 

Can  it  be  that  you  hold  a  reprieve  still  in  view  ? 

If  not,  as  a  matter  of  sense, 
'Tis  not  fair  to  the  house,  to  say  nothing  of  you, 

To  keep  it  so  long  in  suspense. 

I  know  from  one  corner  the  slates  have  been  stript, 

And  an  angle  of  brick  has  arisen, 
But  if  more  has  been  done,  may  the  writer  be  whipt, 

And  his  progeny  pine  in  a  prison. 

Bricks  and  timber,  'tis  certain,  encumber  the  road, 

Bricks  and  timber  encumber  the  door, 
But  I  don't  see  them  rise  to  their  final  abode, 

Or  condense  into  storey  and  floor. 

Some  six  or  eight  hands  —  there  were  eight  on  to-day,  — 

Rush  hither  and  thither  apace, 
But  time,  the  unceasing,  works  faster  than  they, 

And  will  beat  them,  I  fear,  in  the  race. 

My  fears  may  be  vain,  but  I  think  it  were  well 

That  you  sent  to  your  landlord  a  letter 
To  ask  how  things  prosper,  your  wishes  to  tell, 

And  cry,  "  Finish,  the  sooner  the  better." 

This  I  know  from  experience,  though  honest  and  kind, 

He's  a  horse  somewhat  slow  on  the  road, 
And  without  being  cruel  you'll  certainly  find 

That  his  paces  are  helped  by  the  goad. 

For  the  rest,  don't  betray  whence  your  knowledge  arose, 

For  I've  matters  on  hand  of  my  own  ; 
And  should  he  be  wroth,  why  the  six  weeks  may  close 

And  leave  me  and  my  mansion  undone. 


126  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


All  Harrow  now  rests  from  its  terminal  whirl ; 

We  have  had  but  one  birth  since  you  parted, — 
Madame  Ruault  the  mother,  the  offspring  a  girl ; 

The  parents  are  not  broken-hearted. 

Good-by !    We  are  happy,  thank  God,  we  are  well ; 

They  flourish,  my  wife  and  my  daughter. 
I  hope  you,  my  friend,  the  same  story  can  tell 

Of  your  wife,  son,  and  self,  at  Freshwater. 

E.  H.  B." 

To  his  friend,  E.  S.  Beesly,  on  the  birth  of  his  eldest 
son :  — 

"May  19th. 

"  Dear  Beesly  :  Many  thanks  for  your  kind  lines 
of  congratulation.  The  pleasure  of  having  a  child  is 
indeed  intense,  it  seems  to  open  up  in  one's  heart  an 
unfathomable  fountain  of  love.  Still  it  is  yXv/cvTrncpos 
and  brings  its  own  anxieties.  He  is  a  pretty  little  boy  — 
but  so  delicate.  I  hope,  indeed,  that  he  will  have  you 
for  a  kind  friend  when  he  grows  up,  if  he  does  grow  up, 
as  I  trust  he  will.  You  must  come  and  make  his  ac- 
quaintance this  term,  by  the  time  Mrs.  Farrar  is  well. 
She  and  the  child  are  doing  well  at  present. 

"  I  was  very  glad  to  catch  even  a  glimpse  of  Mr.  Con- 
greve  at  your  house. 

"  Ever,  my  dear  Beesly, 

"  Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

The  above  letter  refers  to  the  editor  of  these  memoirs, 
who  has  outgrown  his  youthful  delicacy  of  constitution. 

The  two  next  letters  allude  to  a  ridiculous  canard  as 
to  my  father's  Harrow  experiences  which  seems  to  have 


HARROW  DAYS 


127 


obtained  some  vogue  at  Marlborough  and  caused  some 
temporary  annoyance. 

"  Harrow,  Nov.  6. 

"  My  dear  Beesly  :  I  am  eternally  obliged  to  Ilbert 
for  letting  me  know  the  preposterous  scandal  which 
I  hope  I  have  now  effectually  knocked  on  the  head,  — 
though  not  before  I  have  been  sufficiently  annoyed;  for 
like  ill  winds  it  spread  even  to  Cambridge,  where  fortu- 
nately my  friend,  Cecil  Monro,  at  once  tore  it  up  by 
the  roots. 

"  Meanwhile  I  get  happier  every  day ;  fellows  of  all 
sorts  understand  me  better  :  I  have  a  tight  grip  (which  I 
shall  not  soon  relax)  on  the  turbulent,  and  I  am  getting 
(I  hope)  into  the  affections  of  the  better  ones,  in  spite 
of  certain  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort.  Briefly,  I  am 
getting  a  footing  here  among  the  boys.  I  shall  have 
ample  room  and  verge  enough  to  work  under  a  defective 
system.  The  thing  I  feel  most  is  want  of  sympathy. 
Watson  is  my  most  genial  friend  here,  and  him  I  really 
like.  I  do  wish  you  were  here  to  flounder  about  a  little: 
I  can't  do  it  half  so  effectually.  But  still,  some  things 
I  have  done  already  and  shall  do  more.  I  preach  on 
Sunday,  and  shall,  if  I  can  manage,  rough  them  well. 
They  need  it.  They  are  too  supercilious  and  absurd  by 
half.  But  unluckily  one  only  preaches  to  the  lower  half 
of  the  school.  I  was  so  sorry  that  Blake  missed  All 
Souls. 

"  Do  come  ;  a  day  or  two's  warning  will  be  ample,  for 
I  could  let  you  know  then  in  the  (unlikely)  case  of  my 
being  unable  to  receive  you.  Why  not  next  Saturday  ? 
Would  a  boy  be  a  bore  to  bring  (he  must  come  in  a  hat, 
caps  being  unknown  here).  Warren  or  Ilbert?  but 
follow  your  own  taste  and  do  just  as  you  like  about  it 


128  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


altogether.  I  am  looking  forward  to  seeing  Bull.  Why 
not  come  with  him  if  possible. 

"  You  can't  think  how  society  stagnates  here.  Conver- 
sation is  unknown.  Harrow  forms  the  sole  topic  of 
Harrow,  the  only  good  point  being  that  scandal  is  never 
talked  or  hinted. 

"  I  met  young  Oxenham  the  other  day  and  was 
delighted  with  him. 

"  You  should  see  my  daily  list  of  punishments.  Heigh- 
ho  !  This  kind  of  thing  requires  a  brave,  stout-hearted, 
patient,  strong  man. 

"  Ever  your  most  affectionate, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar. 

"  You  told  me  nothing  about  my  missing  goods." 

"  Harrow,  October  29. 

"  My  dear  Beesly  :  I  am  perpetually  annoyed  by  let- 
ters from  the  boys  at  M          speaking  as  if  I  had  been 

subjected  to  personal  violence  (!)  by  the  boys  here,  and 
to-day  I  was  informed  that  I  had  been  tied  by  a  great- 
coat, and  pelted  with  cinders ! !  I  can't  tell  you  the 
ineffable  disgust  which  those  preposterous  reports  give 
me ;  and  as  they  are  as  grotesquely  and  groundlessly 
and  absolutely  false,  and  as  diametrically  the  reverse  of 
anything  possible  as  they  can  be,  I  do  wish,  once  for 
all,  that  they  could  be  authoritatively  contradicted. 
Whence  such  absurdly  and  gratuitously  nonsensical 
tittle-tattle  can  have  originated  I  cannot  even  dream, 
unless  some  Harrovian  has  been  humbugging  one  of 
the  M  fellows. 

"  The  idea !  I  wonder  whether  you  all  think  me 
made  of  straw?  Likely  that  I  should  be  roughly 
handled,  every  one  and  all  of  whom  instantly  obey 
my  slightest  order,  and  who  are  in  as  complete  a  state 


HARROW  DAYS 


129 


of  subjection  now  as  any  form  in  Marlboro'.  Never 
was  there  a  better  exemplification  of  the  story  of  the 
three  black  crows.  While  I  am  absent  some  boys,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  Mayor's  ignorance  of  their  names, 
unscrew  a  desk  and  crack  nuts,  and  from  that  Ilbert 
tells  me  half  the  school  believe  that  I  have  been  gar- 
roted  !  a  thing  just  as  likely  as  that  Scott  and  Tom- 
kinson  should  be  found  some  fine  morning  crucified 
with  their  heads  downward  on  the  first  eleven  cricket 
ground  by  their  respective  forms. 

"  I  really  should  not  have  troubled  about  this  if  I  had 
not  been  bothered  by  rumours  of  it  from  all  sides,  and 
am  now  quite  tired  of  the  absurdity ;  so  please  if  any 
of  the  members  of  the  Common  Room  share  these  hal- 
lucinations, will  you  kindly  undeceive  them  ? 

"In  fact  I  am  getting  on  excellently;  I  declared  war 
with  my  form  and  have  conquered.  Now  we  get  on 
together  as  well  as  it  is  possible  to  do  on  a  system 
where  boys  only  know  masters  as  punishment  machines, 
—  a  system  whose  trammels  I  am  breaking  more  and 
more  every  day.  Do  come  and  see  me  if  only  to  assure 
the  boys  from  ocular  demonstration  that  my  exhausted 
frame  can  just  survive  the  dangerous  injuries  it  has 
received. 

"  Yours  ever, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

Later,  he  writes  in  a  more  cheerful  strain :  — 

"  Harrow,  Oct.  20. 

"  Dear  Beesly  :  I  put  off  answering  your  letter, 
hoping  to  do  it  more  at  length  ;  but  I  have  never  been 
busier  than  now,  and  find  it  hopeless  just  at  present.  I 
am  to  be  ordained  priest  at  a  fortnight's  notice! 


130  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  All  things  here  are  very  happy.  I  love  my  pupils 
more  and  more,  and  my  little  house  contains  four  of  the 
most  promising  boys  in  the  school.  Will  it  all  last  ?  I 
don't  deserve  it.  Vaughan  favours  me  with  really  an 
unusual  share  of  kindness  and  confidence. 

"  Many  thanks  for  your  kind  congratulations.  It  is  a 
great  relief  to  have  got  the  Fellowship,  as  it  makes  one 
feel  more  independent.  I  hope  now  to  work  a  little  at 
bibliography. 

"  Love  to  friends,  and  believe  me  ever 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar. 

"  Pray  tell  Hanbury,  will  you,  that  I  cannot  write  at 
present,  being  steeped  in  work,  and  tell  Cobb  I  will  write 
(don't  forget)  as  soon  as  I  possibly  can." 

"  Harrow,  Feb.  i. 

"  Dear  Beesly  :  Scene  —  dining  room  ;  fire  gone 
out  and  all  the  people  fast  asleep  in  bed.  Time  —  12  on 
Sunday  night.  Condition  — very  cold  feet,  fatigue,  and 
general  muddle-headedness  ;  in  spite  of  which,  as  this 
is  my  only  chance  of  having  leisure  for  a  fortnight,  I 
must  write  now. 

"  Your  letter  telling  me  how  lax  I  have  been  convicts 
me  of  gross  selfishness,  for  which  the  extreme  and  ever 
increasing  heaviness  of  my  engagements  constitutes  no 
excuse.  But  indeed  I  had  no  notion  how  dilatory  I  had 
been,  hearing  of  you  so  constantly  as  I  do,  when  not 
from  you;  only  believe  me,  my  dear  Beesly,  nothing 
would  be  a  deeper  pain  to  me  than  if  this  laziness  of 
mine  (for  I  must  call  it  by  this  name,  though  harsher 
than  I  deserve)  ever  lost  me  your  friendship  or  made 
you  think  me  cold  or  indifferent.    On  the  contrary,  I 


HARROW  DAYS 


value  it  as  one  of  my  best  possessions.  Once  in  my 
life  —  once  only  I  think  —  I  lost  a  true  friend  ;  and  one 
other  has  caused  an  estrangement  to  him  on  my  part  — 
both  cost  me  such  bitter  grief  that  I  could  not  bear  the 
lessening  of  another's  esteem.  One  mustn't  be  always 
saying  so  :  but  as  insincerity  is  certainly  not  one  of 
my  many  faults,  you  will,  I  know,  forgive  and  excuse 
me. 

"  B  stayed  a  day  with  me,  and  made  himself  very 

agreeable  :  indeed,  I  thought  him  much  improved  in  all 
ways.  But  then,  you  know,  I  always  believed  in  him  — 
while  you  were  one  of  those  who  considered  him  only  a 
specious  humbug. 

"  Fowler  is  my  guest  at  this  moment  with  cartloads 
of  photographs  which  he  displays  all  day  and  night. 
They  are  from  Rome,  Florence,  etc.  Our  tour  was  pre- 
eminently successful  and  delightful.  The  Harrow  boy 
who  came  with  us  I  had  always  liked,  but  now  I  love 
him  tenfold,  having  been  cheered  by  his  ruddy  face  in 
perils  and  pleasures. 

"  Won't  you  come  here  for  a  Sunday  this  term  ?  It  is 
one's  only  chance  of  seeing  you,  and  we  could  talk  over 
many  things. 

******* 

"  So  do  come  here  —  bringing  a  boy  if  you  like,  and 
whom  you  like — and  you  shall  find  a  warm  welcome  from 
"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

Archdeacon  Vesey  thus  describes  one  of  the  Harrow 
holiday  tours :  — 

"  I  think  I  first  became  acquainted  with  your  father 
at  Cambridge,  shortly  before  he  took  his  degree.  When 


132  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


I  was  curate  of  Great  St.  Mary's,  at  the  end  of  1855,  I 
used  to  see  him  from  time  to  time,  when  he  came  up 
to  Cambridge  from  Marlborough,  and  afterward  from 
Harrow ;  but  our  real  intimacy  began  when,  during  the 
Harrow  holidays  at  Christmas,  1856,  he  joined  me  at 
Rome,  where  I  was  spending  some  weeks  with  another 
Cambridge  friend  on  my  way  to  Sinai  and  Palestine. 
Your  father  came  out  with  a  Harrow  boy  named  Far- 
quhar,  and  we  had  a  delightful  time  visiting  together 
most  of  the  points  of  interest  which  were  new  to  both  of 
us.  He  had  had  a  disagreeable  voyage  to  Civita  Vec- 
chia,  and  had  to  put  in  at  Elba  on  account  of  bad 
weather ;  he  arrived  at  our  apartment  in  the  Piazza  di 
Spagna  '  bleeding  pauls,'  as  he  expressed  it,  '  from 
every  pore,'  from  successive  encounters  with  the  Pon- 
tifical Dogma  officials.  You  will  readily  imagine  how 
his  companionship  more  than  doubled  the  pleasure,  of 
my  visit,  —  whether  in  our  morning  explorations  in  the 
Forum,  such  as  it  then  was,  with  French  soldiers  over- 
looking the  unwilling  excavators  as  they  wheeled  their 
barrows  at  a  snail's  pace ;  or  in  the  Coliseum,  where  a 
Franciscan  monk  was  to  be  heard  preaching  at  every 
station,  and  the  massive  blocks  of  travertine  were  partly 
hid  with  flowers  and  fern  and  other  foliage,  now,  alas ! 
removed  when  what  the  witty  Americans  called  the 
'  sandpapering  process '  was  carried  out  by  the  Italian 
government ;  or  in  the  delightful  afternoon  excursions 
into  the  Campagna,  to  Tivoli,  where  we  lunched  al  fresco 
on  New  Year's  Day ;  or  to  the  graves  of  Keats  and 
Shelley  in  the  old  Protestant  cemetery  hard  by  the  pyra- 
mid of  Caius  Cestius.  Wherever  he  went,  his  keen 
power  of  observation,  his  enthusiasm,  his  fund  of  know- 
ledge and  wealth  of  varied  quotation  made  him  the 
most  delightful  fellow-traveller.      Sometimes  he  ex- 


HARROW  DAYS 


133 


pressed  in  verse  the  thoughts  which  our  visits  aroused. 
For  example,  after  an  excursion  to  Hadrian's  villa  near 
Tivoli  he  wrote  the  following  lines,  which  once  appeared 
in  print,  but  are  not,  I  think,  generally  known :  — 

"  Where  the  cypress  upheaves  its  dark  green  leaves 
By  the  side  of  the  glistening  pine, 
Mark  how  the  rose  of  the  sunlight  glows 
And  the  snow-fringed  mountains  shine. 

And  round  us  arise  to  the  wondering  eyes 

The  wrecks  of  imperial  pride, 
As  along  the  walls  of  the  painted  halls 

We  are  wandering  side  by  side. 

And  not  one  aisle  of  the  royal  pile 

But  adds  to  the  ruined  scene, 
And  ferns  are  waved,  o'er  the  courtyards  paved 

With  mosses  of  red  and  green. 

Aye!  the  lightning  hath  shattered,  the  storm  wind  hath  scattered, 

The  palace-homes  they  built ; 
And  the  dark  years  fall  like  a  funeral  pall 

On  the  tale  of  their  purple  guilt. 

And  the  golden  domes  of  their  gorgeous  homes 

Are  crushed  on  the  crumbling  soil : 
For  unless  God  hath  given  His  blessing  from  Heaven, 

But  lost  is  the  builder's  toil. 

Rome,  New  Year's  Day,  1857. 

"  On  one  occasion  we  went  together  to  the  studio  of 
Overbeck,  the  well-known  German  artist.  Among  other 
pictures,  he  showed  us  one  which  he  called  '  Marriage' ; 
and  the  way  in  which  he  treated  the  subject,  in  a  series 
of  vignettes,  will  be  apparent  from  the  lines  which  your 
father  handed  to  me  the  next  morning:  — 


134  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


" '  Magnum  sacramentum  :  dico  autem  de  Christo  et 
ecclesia. 

" '  With  a  deepening  impulse  of  love  and  prayer, 
We  gazed  on  the  lines  of  the  picture  fair ; 

And  the  holy  Painter  stood  at  our  side, 

As  we  traced  the  tale  of  the  gentle  bride,  — 

The  joys  and  the  sorrows  of  wedded  life, 
The  glory  of  peace,  and  the  shade  of  strife. 

Now  they  are  linked  in  the  golden  band, 

Heart  in  heart  and  hand  in  hand  ; 
And  forth  on  the  untried  path  they  start 

With  eyes  upraised  and  a  beating  heart. 
And  they  heed  him  not  on  the  bridal  morn, 

The  angel  who  scatters  the  boughs  of  thorn. 

Mark  how  he  hovers  their  path  above, 
The  glittering  spirit  with  looks  of  love. 

And  the  cross  he  bears  thro'  the  thickest  glooms, 
Is  bathed  in  the  rays  of  his  silver  plumes, 

And  yet  on  the  pair  is  the  burden  laid, 

As  they  wearily  toil  thro'  the  checkered  shade. 

Soon,  'neath  the  weight  of  the  painful  load, 
They  faint  and  fall  on  the  steep  hill  road. 

But  the  Holy  One  shines  at  their  side  again, 
To  lighten  the  labour  and  heal  the  pain  ; 

And  with  gladder  steps  and  a  calmer  soul 
They  pass  along  to  the  heavenly  goal. 

But  o'er  them  a  seraph  is  leaning  down 
With  a  gleaming  wing  and  a  golden  crown, 

And  children  come  with  their  innocent  eyes 
And  pure  souls,  white  from  the  starry  skies, 

As  over  the  sunlit  moss  he  throws 
Violet  and  lily  and  wreathed  rose. 

Thro'  the  sun  and  shade,  thro'  the  joy  and  woe, 
Dark  or  bright  does  the  life-stream  flow ; 

But  the  cares  are  veiled,  and  the  Cross  is  bless'd 
As  they  near  the  gates  of  their  final  rest ; 


HARROW  DAYS 


*35 


And  they  hear  —  blest  pair  — ere  the  path  is  trod 
The  songs  that  welcome  their  souls  to  God. 

The  gates  are  alight  with  a  million  gems, 
And  the  flash  of  the  rainbow  diadems, 

And  the  diamond  swords  and  the  helm  of  truth, 
And  the  flower-like  curls,  and  the  brows  of  youth, 

And  the  robes  of  light,  and  the  tongues  of  fire, 
And  the  golden  harps  of  the  seraph  choir. 

Keep,  O  Lord,  in  our  memory  green 

The  image  fair  of  that  saintly  scene ; 
Teach  us,  O  Lord,  that  we  ne'er  repine, 

Give  us  hearts  that  may  rest  on  Thine, 
And  aye  may  the  thoughts  of  our  journey  blend 

With  the  glories  that  wait  at  its  holy  end. 
Rome,  1856.  F.  W.  F.'" 

To  my  father's  old  friend  and  qiwndam  chief,  Dr. 
Butler,  the  Master  of  Trinity,  I  am  indebted  for  the 
following  tribute :  — 

"Trinity  Lodge,  Cambridge,  Sept.  11,  1903. 

"  My  dear  Reginald  Farrar:  In  offering  you  these 
few  recollections  of  your  dear  Father,  I  am  very  sensible 
of  their  utter  inadequacy.  It  is  only  in  the  faintest  way 
that  they  recall  either  his  beautiful  youth  at  Trinity  or 
his  brilliant  services  at  Harrow.  But,  as  you  know,  I 
have  been  writing  under  physical  difficulties,  and  the 
publication  of  your  Memoir  would  not  bear  delay.  I 
must  trust  and  believe  that  the  other  records  of  your 
Father's  rich  and  beneficent  career  will  be  far  more 
fully  and  generously  expressed. 

"  Believe  me  affectionately  yours, 

"  H.  Montagu  Butler. 

"  My  friendship  with  Frederic  Farrar  must  have  begun 
in  1852  or  1853,  when  we  were  undergraduates  at  Trinity, 


136  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


he  in  his  second  year  of  residence,  I  in  my  first.  We 
were  both  members  of  a  small  Shakespeare  Society, 
which  met  once  a  week  in  our  several  rooms  to  read  a 
play,  the  parts  of  which  had  been  previously  distributed. 
In  these  delightful  hours  we  came  of  course  to  know  one 
another  very  closely,  and,  half  unconsciously,  to  take 
measure  of  our  respective  gifts  and  tastes.  Farrar  was 
greatly  loved  and  admired  by  us  all.  Intellectually  he 
was  conspicuous  by  his  very  wide  reading  in  English 
literature,  notably  in  poetry  and  in  the  philosophical 
writings  of  S.  T.  Coleridge.  He  came  to  Trinity  from 
King's  College,  London,  and  brought  with  him  a  pro- 
found love  and  reverence  for  F.  D.  Maurice,  whose 
lectures  he  had  there  attended,  and  a  keen  interest 
in  all  the  Christian  social  schemes  which  Maurice  and 
Charles  Kingsley  and  others  were  at  that  time  advo- 
cating. 

"  Apart  from  this  high  mental  culture,  he  impressed  us 
all  by  the  singular  purity  and  elevation  of  his  whole 
character,  his  fiery  enthusiasm  for  every  noble  cause  or 
idea,  his  outspoken  courage,  his  passionate  scorn  for 
injustice,  for  concealment  of  convictions,  for  anything 
that  he  held  to  be  mean  and  low. 

"  His  special  gift  of  eloquence  was  occasionally,  but  not 
very  frequently,  exercised  at  the  Union.  Whenever  he 
spoke,  he  was  listened  to  with  marked  respect  as  not 
only  a  good  speaker,  but  as  an  orator  of  quite  exceptional 
powers ;  but  perhaps  he  was  somewhat  too  much  in 
earnest  for  so  mercurial  an  assembly.  A  lighter  touch, 
with  a  little  more  playfulness  and  humour,  might  have 
been  more  effective. 

"  Once,  I  remember,  he  electrified  us  all  by  a  crush- 
ing reply  to  some  mosquito  of  a  critic  who  had  dared 
almost  to  impeach  the  unfortunate  members  of  the 


HARROW  DAYS 


137 


Library  Committee.  These  officers  had  been  elected 
some  three  weeks  before  by  universal  suffrage  to  select 
new  books  for  the  Term's  consumption.  And  now 
heard  themselves  denounced  as  a  narrow,  heartless 
etc.,  oligarchy  because  they  had  not  included  in  their 
choice  a  few  silly  books  which  had  been  '  recom- 
mended '  by  some  irresponsible  advisers.  Farrar,  as 
one  of  the  '  oligarchs,'  '  came  down  upon '  this  con- 
spirator with  all  his  thunders.  He  treated  him  as  a 
Catiline  or  a  Borgia.  We  were  somewhat  amused,  but 
we  loved  him  all  the  better  for  his  na'fvete  and  his 
fervour. 

"  His  winning  the  Chancellor's  medal  for  an  English 
poem  on  the  Search  for  Sir  John  Franklin  gave  great 
pleasure  to  us  all.  It  was  not  a  commonplace  prize  ex- 
ercise. It  was  a  real  poem,  marked  by  deep  feeling 
and  rare  wealth  of  language,  and  it  was  felt  that  the 
right  man  had  been  crowned. 

"When,  in  1854,  he  became  Fourth  Classic  in  a  very 
strong  year,  and  was  summoned  by  Dr.  Cotton  to  assist 
him  in  his  task  of  revivifying  Marlborough  College,  his 
departure  from  us  was  keenly  felt.  He  had  been  truly 
a  'burning  and  a  shining  light.'  His  friendship  had  been 
a  delight,  his  example  a  privilege,  his  fine,  rich,  vehement 
nature  an  inspiration.  When,  in  October,  1856,  he  be- 
came a  Fellow  of  Trinity,  we  all  rejoiced  with  him.  The 
tradition  still  lives,  I  believe  it  to  be  well  founded,  that 
Dr.  Whewell,  our  great  Master,  was  especially  pleased 
with  his  philosophical  and  metaphysical  paper.  It 
showed  very  extensive  reading  and  keen  interest  in 
such  subjects. 

"  It  is  not  for  me  to  follow  Farrar  to  Marlborough,  and 
to  speak  of  the  few  happy  years  of  his  apprenticeship 
there.    Enough  to  say,  what  I  know  from  Dr.  Cotton 


138  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


himself,  that  the  Master  was  proud  of  his  young  and 
brilliant  colleague,  that  he  felt  the  value  of  his  influ- 
ence over  the  Sixth  Form,  and  that  he  became  deeply 
attached  to  him  as  a  friend. 

"  Cotton  and  Dr.  Vaughan  had  been  on  the  most  affec- 
tionate terms  of  friendship  ever  since  their  undergradu- 
ate days  at  Trinity,  and  it  was  doubtless  through  Cotton's 
reluctant  mediation  that  Vaughan,  in  1855,  invited  the 
young  Trinity  Fellow  to  join  his  distinguished  staff  at 
Harrow  —  a  staff  which  at  that  time  included  the  names 
of  Harris,  Steel,  Rendall,  Westcott,  H.  W.  Watson, 
all,  like  the  Head-master  himself,  past  or  present  Fel- 
lows of  the  same  College.  E.  E.  Bowen  was  soon  to 
follow. 

"  I  must  not  attempt  to  give  more  than  the  barest 
sketch  of  Farrar's  services  to  Harrow  during  the  re- 
maining years  of  Dr.  Vaughan's  head-mastership  and 
the  first  eleven  years  of  my  own.  His  position  was 
from  the  first,  and  throughout,  original  and  peculiar. 
He  was  all  along  the  companion  of  his  boys,  whether  in 
form,  or  in  the  house,  or  in  games  or  walks.  He  had 
no  fears  of  compromising  his  dignity  by  such  familiarity. 
Some  boys  no  doubt  took  advantage  of  his  confidence 
and  his  informalities,  but  he  soon  became  loved  and 
looked  up  to  as  well  as  admired.  His  teaching  was 
strangely  fresh  and  inspiring.  On  the  one  hand,  he 
drew  up  formal  printed  cards  to  impress  upon  young 
learners  the  simple  facts  of  accidence  and  the  simpler 
rules  of  syntax.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  always 
drawing  forth,  from  the  stores  of  his  really  wonderful 
memory,  which  we  had  known  so  well  at  Cambridge, 
noble  and  memorable  quotations  from  the  poets,  es- 
pecially his  grand  favourite  Milton.  By  this  '  double 
action '  he  sought  to  make  his  pupils  feel  that  if  grammar 


HARROW  DAYS 


139 


was  the  gateway  to  knowledge,  literature  and  human 
nature  were  all  the  while  its  temple. 

"  Devoted  as  he  was  to  scholarship  and  literature,  he 
was  also  the  founder  of  our  Natural  History  Society. 
Himself  a  considerable  botanist,  he  inspired  a  number 
of  boys,  not  all  of  them  classics  or  mathematicians,  with 
a  desire  to  explore  the  secrets  of  nature,  and  especially 
to  make  careful  collections  of  flowers  gathered  during 
happy  walks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Harrow. 

"  His  gradually  increasing  intimacy  with  men  distin- 
guished in  science  and  literature  was  pleasantly  placed 
at  our  service.  It  was  to  him  that  we  owed  the  first 
lectures  of  Tyndall  on  sound,  of  Huxley  on  the  anatomy 
of  the  lobster,  of  Ruskin  on  minerals.  In  short,  he 
helped  to  '  enlarge  our  intercourse  '  with  the  wider  intel- 
lectual world  outside  our  own  borders. 

"  It  would  be  wrong,  and  even  absurd,  to  close  this 
brief  notice  without  a  few  words  on  his  school  sermons. 
His  position  as  a  great  preacher  is  part  of  the  history 
of  the  Church  of  England  during  the  last  thirty-five 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  suppose  there  is 
scarcely  a  cathedral  or  a  university  pulpit  or  a  school 
chapel  in  which  his  voice  has  not  been  heard,  and  he 
rarely  refused  a  request  from  a  brother  clergyman  in 
either  town  or  village.  A  man  who  has  preached  so  con- 
stantly, so  ubiquitously,  and  to  such  varied  audiences, 
has  left  a  definite  impress  on  those  who  either  heard  or 
read  his  words.  To  define  that  impress  is  no  part  of 
my  task,  save  so  far  as  it  concerns  Harrow.  There  his 
position  was  unique.  Our  custom  was  that  the  clerical 
assistant  masters  preached  in  turn  at  the  morning  ser- 
vice in  the  school  chapel.  Farrar's  turn  was  eagerly 
expected  both  by  the  boys  and  by  the  parents  of  our 
home-boarders.    There  was  always  great  pressure  to 


140  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


obtain  admission  to  the  chapel  on  the  Sundays  on  which 
he  preached.  Needless  to  add,  he  was  listened  to  with 
the  most  breathless  attention.  To  say  that  the  solemn 
cadences  of  his  fine,  rich  voice  were  weighted  with  the 
most  intense  earnestness  is  the  language  of  common- 
place, but  it  is  at  least  true.  He  seemed  always  to  have 
before  him  two  haunting  visions,  the  one  of  boyish  inno- 
cence, the  other  of  boyish  wickedness.  If  to  some  of  us 
he  appeared  sometimes  to  see  these  two  great  extremes 
out  of  their  due  proportion,  and  to  be  less  clear-sighted 
as  to  the  wide  region  which  lies  between  them,  we  were 
none  the  less  grateful  for  his  loving  sympathy  with  the 
one  and  his  solemn  warnings  to  the  other.  Hundreds 
of  Harrow  boys,  I  cannot  doubt  it,  will  look  back  upon 
his  words  from  the  chapel  pulpit  —  his  voice,  his  look, 
his  whole  personality  —  as  among  the  chief  blessings  of 
their  school  life." 


CHAPTER  VII 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH 

In  i  87 i  my  father  was  appointed  Head-master  of 
Marlborough  on  perhaps  the  strongest  testimonials  ever 
given  for  a  similar  candidature.  Among  others,  Profes- 
sor Max  Miiller,  his  antagonist  in  the  lists  of  philology, 
generously  testified  that  he  "would  add  lustre  to  any 
school  in  England  "  ;  and  his  old  tutor  Maurice  declared 
that  he  would  be  "  well  able  to  combine  the  culture  of 
other  days  with  the  special  wisdom  of  ours." 

It  was  a  great  delight  to  him  to  return  to  Marlborough, 
his  first  love,  and  the  years  spent  here  were  in  some 
respects  the  happiest  and  most  unclouded  of  his  life. 

In  1867  he  had  been  a  candidate  for  the  head-master- 
ship of  Haileybury,  which  was  given  to  one  of  his  Har- 
row colleagues,  Dr.  Bradby.  That  more  unqualified 
support  was  not  accorded  to  him  on  this  occasion  is  due 
in  part  to  regretful  doubts  inspired  by  the  perhaps  some- 
what indiscriminate  vigour  of  his  onslaught  upon  the 
system  of  classical  education,  and  by  fears  on  the  part  of 
old  and  dear  friends  that  his  characteristic  impetuosity 
might  imply  a  certain  lack  of  judicial  balance. 

This  defeat  was,  naturally,  a  keenly  felt  disappoint- 
ment at  the  time,  but  better  things  were  in  store  for 
him  ;  and  when  he  stood  for  Marlborough  his  reputation 
not  only  as  a  brilliant  scholar,  preacher,  and  man  of 
letters,  but  as  a  leader  of  men  and  a  schoolmaster  of  ex- 

141 


142  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


ceptional  strength  of  character,  was  so  fully  established 
that  his  claims  could  no  longer  be  resisted. 

During  Farrar's  mastership,  assisted  as  he  was  by  an 
exceptionally  able  staff  of  colleagues  who  served  under 
him  with  loyal  and  heart-whole  devotion,  Marlborough 
rose  to  the  very  zenith  of  her  great  reputation. 

The  story  of  those  days  is  so  well  told  by  others  in 
the  following  pages  that  I  need  add  but  little  to  it.  I 
will  merely  insert,  from  a  chart  of  the  school  history,  a 
brief  list  of  the  principal  organic  changes  inaugurated 
during  Farrar's  mastership,  though  some  of  them  had 
been  projected  and  prepared  in  the  reign  of  the  great 
and  good  head-master  who  preceded  him,  Dr.  Bradley, 
the  late  Dean  of  Westminster  :  — 

1 871 .  Improvements  in  the  Drainage. 
Purchase  of  Freehold. 

Science  Teaching  commenced  (Mr.  Rodwell,  Science  Mas- 
ter). 

1872.  The  "New  Houses,"  i.e.  Littlefield  and  Cotton  House. 

1873.  Bradleian. 

1875.  Masters'  Retirement  Fund. 

Decoration  of  Chapel,  conversion  of  Covered  Playground  to 
Gymnasium  during  this  Period. 

In  the  actual  execution  of  these  schemes  the  lion's 
share  fell  to  the  "Bursar,"  named,  loved,  and  revered  by 
every  generation  of  Marlburians  to  the  present  day,  my 
father's  former  pupil,  colleague  at  Marlborough,  son-in- 
law  later,  and  lifelong  friend,  the  Rev.  John  Shearm 
Thomas  (died  September  26,  1897). 

To  the  Marlborough  period  belong,  besides  other 
publications,  two  volumes  of  sermons,  "  The  Silence  and 
Voices  of  God,"  1874,  and  "  In  the  Days  of  thy  Youth," 

1 876,  preached  in  Marlborough  Chapel.  None  who  heard 
those  sermons  can  wholly  forget  the  overpowering  in- 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  143 


tensity  of  conviction,  or  the  fiery  eloquence  with  which 
the  master  drove  home  to  his  boys  the  great  truths 
of  righteousness.  I  was  a  lad  of  fifteen  when  I  heard 
those  sermons  preached,  but  there  still  rings  in  my  ears 
the  passionate  force  with  which  my  father  delivered  the 
lines  — 

How  like  a  younker  or  a  prodigal 

The  scarfed  bark  puts  from  her  native  bay, 

Hugged  and  embraced  by  the  strumpet  wind. 

How  like  a  prodigal  doth  she  return, 

With  over-weathered  ribs  and  ragged  sails, 

Lean,  rent,  and  beggared  by  the  strumpet  wind. 

These  sermons  will  illustrate  one  of  his  strongest 
characteristics  as  a  preacher,  —  the  power,  namely,  of 
riveting  great  moral  truths  upon  the  mind  by  apt  and 
striking  quotations  from  the  poets,  which  lingered  in 
the  memory  even  after  the  sermon  itself  was  forgotten. 

I  have  given  already  one  extract  from  "  In  the  Days 
of  thy  Youth,"  and  must  resist  the  temptation  to  add 
others.  Of  his  powers  and  gifts  as  a  preacher  I  shall 
speak  again ;  here  I  will  only  say  that  in  force  and  direct- 
ness of  appeal,  as  well  as  in  beauty  of  language  and 
imagery,  these  sermons  to  boys  revealed  the  preacher 
at  his  best. 

The  following  letter  serves  to  illustrate  the  effect  the 
sermons  produced  in,  at  least,  one  instance  :  — 

"  Private 

"The  College,  Marlborough. 

"  A  Marlborough  boy  desires  to  express  his  greatest 
gratitude  and  thanks  to  Mr.  Farrar,  for  a  sermon  which, 
he  trusts,  has  done  him  more  good,  and  brought  him 
nearer  heaven,  than  anything  he  ever  heard  in  his  life. 

"  A  Marlborough  Boy." 


144  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


My  father's  description  of  Marlborough,  —  from  the 
"  Memorials  of  Cyril  Lytton  Farrar,"  may  be  quoted  as 
giving  a  picture  of  this  beloved  home :  — 

"  The  Lodge  at  Marlborough  College  was  as  charming 
a  home  as  children  could  possibly  have  enjoyed.  The 
grounds  of  the  college,  the  master's  garden,  the  wilder- 
ness, the  bathing-pool,  the  mound,  the  playground,  were 
delightful  places  for  their  walks  and  games.  The  green 
downs  with  their  copses  and  fresh  breezy  air  were  close 
at  hand,  and  in  spring  they  were  a  mass  of  primroses, 
wild  anemones,  and  violets.  When  the  children  went 
to  the  west  woods  they  could  get  baskets  full  of  daffodils. 
The  forest  with  its  deer,  and  its  lovely  undulations,  and 
its  green  glades  and  avenues  and  noble  trees  was  close 
at  hand.  The  garden  of  the  Lodge  itself  was  full  of 
roses.  It  had  a  lawn-tennis  ground  and  a  field,  and  the 
river  Kennet  flowed  at  the  bottom  of  the  kitchen  garden. 
The  schoolroom  and  nurseries  were  in  a  separate  part  of 
a  beautiful  and  convenient  house.  Our  carriage  and 
pony-carriage  were  in  constant  request  for  picnics  to  Mar- 
tinsell  and  other  lovely  places.  We  also  had  two  pretty 
ponies,  called  Tommy  and  Ruksh,  for  the  children  to 
ride.  They  had  a  multitude  of  pets.  Mr.  Lucas  had 
given  us  a  tame  fawn,  which  followed  us  about  the  gar- 
den. He  had  also  given  us  some  rare  and  beautiful 
fowls,  and  we  had  plenty  of  poultry.  We  brought  a 
tame  sea-gull  from  Swanage,  which  after  a  time  flew 
away.  We  had  a  dove-cot  full  of  white  pigeons,  which 
were  perfectly  tame,  and  would  settle  in  crowds  on  the 
sill  of  the  nursery  window  and  eat  from  the  children's 
hands. 

"  The  children  grew  up  amid  the  fresh  young  life  of  a 
great  English  school  in  the  country.  They  were  sur- 
rounded by  its  deep  and  varied  interests,  and  had  their 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  145 


little  share  in  its  constant  festivals.  Many  a  happy- 
afternoon  they  enjoyed  in  the  forest  and  on  the  downs 
with  boys  of  the  school.  Some  of  the  boys,  who  in  one 
way  or  other  were  known  to  us,  had  the  run  of  the  house, 
and  came  in  and  out  almost  as  they  liked.  Among  them 
were  Hallam  Tennyson,  Everett  Millais,  Philip  Burne- 
Jones,  and  Leslie  Norris.  Our  guests  were  numerous, 
and  some  of  them  were  distinguished  and  well-known 
men.  Sir  J.  E.  Millais,  Mr.  E.  Burne-Jones,  the  Bishops 
of  Salisbury  and  Limerick,  Mr.  E.  Normand  Lockyer, 
Sir  Henry  Thompson,  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  Judge  Thomas 
Hughes,  Canon  Rowsell,  Dr.  Abbott,  Bishop  Creighton, 
and  many  others  came  to  stay  with  us.  It  was  an 
advantage  to  the  children  to  meet  such  men,  and  they 
received  abundance  of  kindly  notice  both  from  guests 
and  from  the  masters  and  boys  of  the  college.  Mr. 
F.  Storr  and  Canon  Bell,  who  were  then  assistant 
masters,  were  great  friends  with  the  children.  The 
former  was  constantly  in  the  schoolroom,  and  once  dis- 
arranged the  machinery  of  the  Swiss  cuckoo  clock  which 
Mrs.  Orford  Holte  had  given  to  Maud,  and  which  she 
still  has  with  her  in  Tasmania,  by  hanging  one  of  the 
dolls  to  the  chains.  Cyril,  with  his  bright  temperament, 
was  always  a  special  favourite.  At  that  time  he  had  fixed 
on  the  army  as  his  future  destination,  and  when  asked 
what  he  meant  to  be,  he  used  to  answer  stoutly  that  he 
should  be  "  Captain  Farrar  of  the  Royal  Horse  Guards, 
b'oo"  [sc.  "Blue"]. 

Mr.  P.  E.  Thompson,  one  of  his  colleagues,  contributes 
the  following  reminiscences  :  — 

"  I  am  very  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  paying  my 
tribute  of  respect  to  my  old  friend  and  former  chief  at 
Marlborough,  the  late  Dean  of  Canterbury. 


146  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  My  earliest  recollection  of  Farrar  (the  surname  alone 
comes  naturally,  and  surely  needs  no  addition)  is  of  him 
as  an  undergraduate  at  Cambridge.  I  was  a  student  at 
King's  College,  London,  which  he  had  left  two  or  three 
years  before,  covered  with  honours.  He  came  to  take 
part  in  our  Debating  Society.  We  regarded  his  coming 
with  great  interest,  for,  naturally,  to  us  he  was  a  hero  who 
at  Cambridge  was  more  than  fulfilling  our  expectations. 
I  can  recall  his  appearance  vividly.  He  was  still  some- 
what boyish  in  figure,  slim,  with  fairly  thick,  dark  brown 
hair,  and  without  that  white  complexion  which  was  so 
marked  in  later  years.  His  manner  was  simple  and 
pleasant,  without  the  sense  of  complete  sureness,  and 
his  speech  ready  but  not  measured.  A  modest,  able, 
delightful  young  fellow,  you  would  have  said.  He  was 
a  strong  liberal  in  politics,  and  in  a  good-humoured  way, 
without  any  bitterness  or  sarcasm,  rallied  the  conserva- 
tive proposer  of  the  motion  debated,  sketching  from 
the  premisses  of  his  speech  the  probable  career  which 
awaited  him.  My  next  reminiscence  is  about  a  year 
later,  when  Farrar  had  taken  his  degree.  I  was  talk- 
ing with  our  classical  professor,  the  late  Archdeacon 
Browne.  '  Farrar  was  here  yesterday,'  he  said  to  me ; 
'  he  is  doing  a  very  stupid  thing.  With  his  degree  and 
university  distinctions  he  might  make  sure  of  his  fel- 
lowship and  work  at  Trinity.  He  ought  to  stay  up  at 
Cambridge ;  instead  of  this  he  is  going  to  Marlborough, 
a  new  school  with  a  bad  reputation,  so  far  as  anything 
is  known  of  it'  This  was  at  the  beginning  of  Cotton's 
mastership,  when  that  truly  remarkable  man,  whom 
Farrar  always  held  in  deep  reverence,  was  gathering 
about  him  a  band  of  exceptionally  able  young  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  men,  attracted  by  no  prospect  of  mate- 
rial advantage,  but  animated  solely  with  the  enthusiasm, 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  147 


which  his  own  magnetic  character  inspired,  for  creating 
a  great  public  school  after  an  unfortunate  start.  Of 
that  band  of  men,  among  whom  Farrar  was  conspicuous, 
who  cast  their  bread  upon  the  waters,  I  have  often 
thought  in  the  words  of  the  divine  paradox,  '  He  that 
loseth  his  life  shall  save  it.'  When  I  was  at  Oxford  I 
remember  a  young  Marlborough  scholar  coming  up  to 
my  own  college,  full  of  admiration  and  affection  for  the 
brilliant  young  Cambridge  man  who  threw  himself  heart 
and  soul  into  the  work  of  the  Sixth,  and  the  life  and 
thoughts  of  the  whole  school. 

"Years  passed.  I  had  gone  to  Marlborough  in  1859. 
Farrar,  who  in  1855  had  been  appointed  to  a  mastership 
at  Harrow  by  Dr.  Vaughan,  had  made  himself  widely 
known  as  teacher,  educationalist,  preacher,  philologist, 
and  writer  of  fiction.  He  was  to  come  and  preach  our 
Founder's  Day  sermon  at  Marlborough.  This  was,  I 
think,  in  1866.  I  had  not  seen  him  for  thirteen  years, 
and  naturally  my  curiosity  and  interest  were  deeply 
roused.  As  he  walked  up  the  College  Chapel  my  sur- 
prise at  the  change  which  had  come  over  him  was  ex- 
treme. The  boyish  undergraduate  of  1853  had  become, 
speaking  unchronologically,  the  Dr.,  or  the  Canon  Far- 
rar of  middle  life.  His  form  was  ampler,  his  carriage 
more  erect,  his  movements  deliberate  and  stately,  the 
hair  darker  and  thinner,  the  complexion  whiter.  The 
rich,  mellow  voice  rolled  out  its  measured  periods  of 
sustained  and  controlled  oratory.  The  sermon  produced 
a  powerful  effect  on  the  Sixth.  Our  Founder's  Day  is 
the  festival  of  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels.  The  angels 
of  God  were  the  crises  in  human  life  which  come  as  his 
messengers. 

"  Four  more  years  had  passed,  and  Bradley  was  leav- 
ing Marlborough  for  Oxford.    It  was  no  secret  that 


148 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Farrar  had  always  cherished  the  hope  of  becoming  one 
day  Master  of  Marlborough.  He  had  never  lost  his 
first  love.  I  remember  how  at  a  school  dinner,  a  dis- 
tinguished Harrow  master,  in  speaking  of  Farrar,  who 
was  present,  humorously  reminded  him  that  all  through 
his  Harrow  career  he  had  never  lost  an  opportunity  of 
assuring  the  Harrow  people  of  the  far  greater  impor- 
tance and  interest  of  Marlborough.  The  great  Brad- 
leian  period  had  drawn  to  a  close.  The  brilliant  sunset 
was  obscured  by  some  clouds  of  temporary  anxiety. 
There  had  been  one  or  two  bad  bouts  of  scarlatina,  and 
doubts  had  naturally  risen  about  the  sanitary  arrange- 
ments of  the  school.  But  if  the  misfortune  had  occurred 
in  Bradley's  time,  it  was  he,  with  the  cooperation  of  the 
bursar,  the  late  Rev.  J.  S.  Thomas,  the  right-hand  man 
of  three  successive  masters,  who  provided  the  remedy. 
The  sanitary  arrangements  were  thoroughly  overhauled 
and  rectified.  The  overcrowded  college  dormitories 
were  to  be  relieved  by  building  two  large  boarding- 
houses,  which  were  at  once  commenced.  Of  Bradley, 
confessedly  the  greatest  head-master  of  his  own  day, 
no  one  who  had  the  happiness  of  serving  under  him  can 
speak  without  emotion,  admiration,  and  affection.  At 
this  juncture  Farrar  came  as  head-master,  with  a  splen- 
did reputation  and  a  splendid  new  connection.  Testi- 
monials will  always  be  read  with  some  critical  hesitation ; 
but  there  was  no  mistaking  the  unreserved  terms  in  which 
the  present  Master  of  Trinity,  the  late  Bishop  Lightfoot, 
Max  Miiller,  and  F.  D.  Maurice  his  revered  teacher  at 
King's  College,  spoke  of  him.  His  connection  was  as 
large  as  it  was  varied,  comprising  men  of  the  greatest 
eminence  in  art,  science,  literature,  and  commerce. 
Such  a  reputation,  and  such  a  connection  rapidly  dis- 
pelled the  anxiety  which  was  felt  at  the  time  by  the 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  149 


friends  of  the  school;  and  if  Marlburians  cherish,  as 
they  ever  will  cherish,  the  memory  of  Bradley  with 
imperishable  gratitude,  they  will  also  feel  the  deepest 
gratitude  to  Farrar  for  this  alone,  that  his  coming 
helped  the  school  at  what  must  be  regarded  as  a  crisis 
in  its  history.  None  was  more  sensible  of  this  great 
service  than  Bradley,  most  generous  of  men,  and  the 
able  bursar ;  none  more  ready  to  recognise  it. 

"  Farrar's  delight  on  coming  back  to  Marlborough  as 
head-master  was  quite  touching.  He  was  interested 
in  everything :  the  teaching  of  the  Sixth,  the  reviewing 
of  the  forms,  the  games,  the  various  institutions,  such  as 
the  Rifle  Corps,  the  Natural  History  Society,  parent  of 
all  similar  school  institutions  (he  was  himself  a  keen 
amateur  botanist),  the  music,  and  above  all  the  preach- 
ing. Well  do  I  remember  his  first  sermon.  He  took 
as  his  text,  '  What  mean  ye  by  this  service  ? '  He 
preached  without  notes,  and  I  always  regretted  that  he 
afterwards  abandoned  ex  tempore  preaching,  for  his  style 
was  less,  rather  than  more,  rhetorical  than  in  his  written 
sermons,  and  arrested  attention  in  a  most  remarkable 
manner.  '  This  service '  of  the  College  Chapel  was 
meant  to  be  no  mechanical  roll-call,  but  the  source  of 
spiritual  life  to  the  school.  Such,  indeed,  had  always 
been  the  ideal,  and  still  is  the  ideal,  of  successive  mas- 
ters ;  but  the  ideal  was  admirably  put.  Equally  well 
can  I  recall  his  first  Prize  Day  gathering.  On  these 
occasions  he  was  at  his  greatest ;  he  was  quite  supreme. 
The  freehold  of  the  college  property  had  been  secured 
shortly  before  his  coming,  after  protracted  negotiations. 
Standing  upright  before  the  table  in  the  presence  of 
the  school  and  the  guests,  in  heroic  vein,  the  mock  ele- 
ment of  which  was  admirably  concealed,  he  rolled  out 
this  sentence, '  From  the  Pavilion  to  the  Bowling  Green 


150  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


and  the  Kennet,  from  the  Bathing-place  to  the  London 
Road — we  are  monarchs  of  all  we  survey.' 

"  Humour  was  not  a  conspicuous  quality  in  him,  but 
he  keenly  enjoyed  a  sally,  even  when  good  temperedly 
directed  against  himself,  and  sometimes  displayed  it  very 
effectively.  On  that  morning  he  had  said  to  me,  'Tell 
me  if  there  is  anything  which  I  ought  not  to  omit.' 
4  Don't  forget  Mr.  Sellick,'  I  replied.  For  the  benefit  of 
non-Marlburians  I  must  briefly  describe  the  indescribable 
and  invaluable  Mr.  Sellick.  He  served  Marlborough 
faithfully  for  some  forty  years  as  1  extra  master,'  being 
a  factotum  whose  place  no  one  has  since  taken  or  could 
take.  He  was  responsible  for  getting  and  issuing 
school  books,  pens,  ink,  and  paper,  for  organising  the 
coming  and  going  of  the  boys,  for  issuing  pocket  money, 
journey  money,  and  for  a  host  of  things  too  long  to  be 
recorded  here.  He  was  a  very  thick-set  man,  with  a 
broad  ruddy  face,  quick  eyes,  and  a  rich  Devonshire 
lingo,  in  which  he  uttered  judgments  of  men  and  things 
quite  impartially  with  unapproachable  pithiness.  It  was 
he  who  managed  all  the  arrangements  for  the  upper 
school  on  Prize  Day,  including  the  disposition  of  the 
many  prizes  ready  to  the  hand  of  the  master.  Bradley's 
allusion  to  Mr.  Sellick  at  the  end  of  the  prize-giving 
was  always  keenly  looked  forward  to,  for  Mr.  Sellick 
was  universally  loved,  feared,  and  enjoyed.  The  mo- 
ment came.  The  master  appeared  to  have  no  more  to 
say,  when  after  a  pause  he  recommenced,  '  And  now 
I  have  one  more  duty  to  perform,  —  a  duty  which  un- 
performed would  mar  this  great  gathering  with  a  sense 
of  incompleteness.'  Another  pause.  '  That  duty  is 
to  thank  publicly  that  Prince  of  Organisers,  Mr.  Sel- 
lick— '  The  rest  was  lost  in  the  thunders  of  applause 
awakened,  while  Mr.  Sellick's  rubicund  face  and  twin- 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  151 


kling  eyes  sank  like  a  setting  sun  behind  the  screen  of 
his  ample  arms. 

"  Farrar  came  with  a  strong  sense  of  the  continuity  of 
Marlborough  traditions,  with  deep  reverence  for  his 
predecessors,  but  at  the  same  time  with  that  most  valu- 
able of  gifts  in  a  new  head-master,  the  '  fresh  eye.' 
He  introduced  many  smaller  alterations,  such  as  regu- 
lations for  greater  neatness  and  uniformity  of  dress, 
rules  concerning  examinations,  and  other  things  which 
need  not  be  noticed  specially.  Some  of  these  new  regu- 
lations were  perhaps  a  little  resented  by  the  laudatores 
temporis  acti,  but  they  were  undoubted  improvements  and 
justified  by  success.  Farrar  unquestionably  did  some- 
thing or  much  to  cultivate  the  manners  of  the  Marl- 
borough boy,  which  were  certainly  a  little  'to  seek,' 
and  to  polish  his  exterior ;  but  he  had  no  desire  to 
impair  their  Wiltshire  simplicity. 

"  What  then  were  his  chief  characteristics  as  teacher 
and  head-master,  as  ruler  of  boys,  and  president  of  his 
colleagues  ?  Farrar  was  an  omnivorous  and  a  rapid 
reader,  with  a  prodigious  memory.  He  had  done  great 
things  by  his  own  efforts  and  he  expected  great  things 
from  others.  There  are  two  distinct  methods  of  teach- 
ing, the  minute  and  the  wide,  the  intensive  and  the 
extensive.  Milton's  ideal  was  a  combination  of  the  two. 
It  is  futile  to  discuss  their  comparative  merits ;  a  good 
teacher  will  choose  the  one  for  which  he  feels  himself 
best  fitted.  Bradley's  method  was  the  minute.  '  I  only 
got  through  seven  lines  of  Vergil  this  morning,'  he  said 
to  me  one  day ;  this  being  of  course  an  extreme  case. 
To  suppose  that  a  pupil  trained  in  the  intensive  method 
may  not  develop  into  the  wide  and  extensive  reader,  or 
that  one  whose  lessons  cover  wide  stretches  of  reading 
may  not  in  time  use  his  large  experience  for  analysis 


152  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


and  minute  criticism,  is  refuted  by  facts.  Farrar  be- 
lieved in  wide  reading  as  a  means  both  to  culture  and 
accuracy.  Not  long  ago  I  received  a  letter  from  an  old 
boy  of  mine  who  had  been  under  Farrar  in  the  Sixth. 
He  had  been  ranching  for  many  years  in  the  wilds  of 
Texas.  He  had  never  lost  a  love  for  English  literature 
with  which  Farrar  had  infected  him,  indeed  he  has  now 
a  finer  taste  and  a  fuller  knowledge  of  English  authors 
than  most  cultivated  and  well-read  men.  We  have  often 
exchanged  notes  on  books.  In  that  letter,  at  the  end 
of  a  list  of  works  which  he  recommended,  he  added 
Farrar's  favourite  motto,  Lege,  lege,  illiquid  haerebit. 
When  another  very  able  boy  in  my  house  was  going  up 
for  his  scholarship,  I  asked  him  what  classical  books 
and  what  English  authors  he  had  read.  I  was  fairly 
amazed  with  the  ground  he  had  covered.  An  unseen 
passage  or  a  subject  for  an  essay  could  scarcely  come 
amiss  to  him.  He  was  far  and  away  first  in  that  schol- 
arship examination.  Undoubtedly,  Farrar's  power  of 
stimulating  able  and  susceptible  boys  to  wide  reading 
on  their  own  account  was  very  remarkable. 

"  Farrar  was  an  optimist  with  regard  to  boys  in  some 
but  not  in  all  respects.  He  drove  his  Sixth  in  most  mat- 
ters with  a  loose  rein.  There  was  in  his  period  a  re- 
markably able  succession  of  boys,  and  not  only  able  but 
original  in  mind  and  independent  in  character.  A  few 
can  only  be  described  as  eccentric  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  term  and  —  well,  a  bit  impish.  With  some  there 
was  a  tendency  to  vfipis  for  the  time.  But  only  for  the 
time.  I  have  followed  the  career  of  most  or  all,  and, 
knowing  most  of  them  personally,  I  can  truthfully  say 
they  have  become  useful,  upright,  honourable  men,  most 
in  good,  some  in  distinguished  positions. 

"  But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  he  was  lax  or  soft 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  153 


where  sternness  was  demanded.  Where  a  question  of 
morals  was  concerned,  no  head-master  could  be  more 
prompt  and  severe.  He  consoled  and  encouraged  the 
offender,  but  his  first  consideration  was  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  Similarly,  in  dealing  with  a  breach 
of  manners  or  discipline.  In  the  upper  school  once  a 
chorus  of  distinguished  amateurs  entertained  the  school 
on  the  evening  of  a  cricket  match.  Some  thoughtless 
louts  at  the  back  so  far  forgot  themselves  as  to  interrupt 
the  singers  with  silly  imitations.  In  an  instant  the  master 
was  on  his  feet.  Facing  the  claque,  with  flashing  eyes 
and  imperious  voice,  he  asked  them  if  they  imagined  that 
he  would  tolerate  such  behaviour.  Did  they  know  what 
was  due  to  the  performers,  to  their  guests,  to  themselves 
as  members  of  the  school,  that  they  dared  indulge  in 
manners  which  would  disgrace  a  twentieth-rate  theatre  ? 
The  effect  was  electric.  Boys  can  understand  and  ap- 
plaud a  display  of  instant  and  fearless  authority. 

"Of  his  masters,  again,  Farrar  expected  much,  —  rightly 
much  ;  sometimes,  I  think,  too  much  in  the  way  of  read- 
ing. He  was  annoyed  when  there  were  signs  that  a 
form  master's  teaching  was  not  abreast  of  the  latest 
scholarship.  He  was  once  positively  indignant,  when 
examining  the  lowest  form  of  the  upper  school  in  Greek 
accidence,  to  find  that  the  boys  had  not  even  an  elemen- 
tary knowledge  of  the  influence  of  the  lost  letter  Jod  on 
Greek  inflection.  So  indignant  was  he  that  I  almost 
expected  him  to  exclaim  with  Longfellow's  Rabbi :  — 

"  So  surely  as  the  letter  Jod 
Once  spake  and  cried  aloud  to  God, 
So  surely  shalt  thou  feel  the  rod, 
And  punished  shalt  thou  be. 

This  is  an  amusing  and  an  extreme  case,  at  which  he 
would  have  laughed  against  himself  by  and  by.  But, 


154  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


as  with  boys,  so  with  masters,  Farrar's  stimulating  effect 
was  great.  I  can  only  say  for  myself  that  during  the 
five  and  a  half  years  of  his  mastership  I  read  far  more 
widely  than  I  had  ever  read  before.  One  could  not 
keep  up  with  him,  but  one  could  keep  him  in  sight. 
Here  I  should  like  to  tell  a  favourite  story  of  mine  at 
the  risk  of  being  personal,  for  it  shows  Farrar  at  his 
best.  At  the  end  of  the  holidays  he  asked  me  what  I 
was  going  to  read  with  my  form  next  term.  '  Some 
of  the  Iliad,'  I  replied.  '  Have  you  read  Paley's  pref- 
ace ? '  he  inquired.  Paley's  edition  had  just  been  pub- 
lished. Well,  I  had  read  it  very  carefully,  for  I  intended 
to  discuss  it  with  my  boys.  '  I  consider,'  the  master 
continued,  'that  Paley  completely  proves  his  case  in  all 
the  three  points  which  he  raises.'  I  did  not  think  so, 
but  purposely  said  little  or  nothing,  for  I  anticipated 
what  would  come.  I  had  a  very  sharp  set  of  boys  that 
term,  and  from  time  to  time  examined  Paley's  hypotheses, 
giving  my  reasons  for  disagreement.  In  due  time  the 
form  went  in  for  review.  Review  over,  the  head  boy 
came  to  me  in  high  feather.  Something,  I  saw,  was  in 
the  wind.  'Awful  sport,  sir,'  he  exclaimed.  'What 
do  you  mean  ? '  I  asked.  '  Oh,  the  master  trotted  us 
out  on  Paley.  "  Don't  you  think  that  Paley  is  right,  when 
he  says,  etc."  "  No,  sir,  no,"  we  called  out.  "  No  !  why 
not  ? "  "  Because,  sir,  etc."  "  Oh,  I  see,"  the  master 
said,  and  burst  out  laughing,  "your  form  master  has 
been  at  you.  We'll  drop  the  subject."  '  I  am  very  fond 
of  this  incident,  for  it  shows  Farrar's  native  magnanimity. 
A  smaller-minded  head-master  would  have  resented  the 
appearance  of  being  bearded  by  an  assistant  master 
through  his  form.  Not  so  Farrar ;  he  saw  the  fun  of 
the  thing,  and  was  delighted  to  find  that  a  teacher  could 
read  and  think  for  himself.    Needless  to  add  that  we 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  155 


were  always  on  the  best  of  terms  or  this  would  not  have 
occurred.  I  could  give  many  instances  of  his  generosity 
of  mind.  He  may  sometimes  have  been  impatient  and 
even  hasty.  He  may  have  been  in  the  right  or  in  the 
wrong,  but  a  misunderstanding  was  impossible  if  you 
went  the  proper  way  to  work.  You  had  only  to  go  to 
him,  to  treat  him  fairly,  and  he  would  at  once  meet  you 
with  open  arms,  literally  so,  as  I  once  well  remember. 

"  The  nearer  you  got  to  him,  the  better  you  understood 
him,  the  more  you  liked  him,  honoured  him,  and  loved 
him.  Can  more  be  said  ?  To  some  he  appeared  stately 
and  unapproachable.  The  truth  is  that  Farrar  was 
naturally  a  shy  man,  not  at  ease  in  all  company,  with- 
out the  gift  of  small  talk.  The  mistake  was  to  treat 
him  as  unapproachable.  Treat  him  as  a  friend,  a  thing 
of  flesh  and  blood,  even  poke  good-humoured  fun  at  him, 
and  he  gave  way  in  a  moment,  becoming  brother  with 
brother.  The  following  authentic  story  shows  how  he 
appeared  to  a  small  boy  who  regarded  him  as  nil  ?nor- 
tale:  'I  was  never  in  the  Sixth,'  he  explained,  'but  Dr. 
Farrar  came  to  review  the  lower  school  form  in  which 
I  then  was.    As  he  came  in,  in  his  silk  gown,  with 

that  stately  form,  oh,  I  did  feel  small !    "  Go  on,  ," 

he  said  to  me.  I  went  on  and  got  through  it.  When 
the  review  was  over,  he  stopped  and  talked  to  us,  among 
others  to  me.  "  Where  were  you  born  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  In  India,  sir,"  I  replied.  "  Ah,  I  was  born  in  Bom- 
bay myself."  We  had  quite  a  talk,  and  then  he  shook 
hands.  I  was  proud  of  myself.  I  didn't  wash  that 
hand  for  two  days.  I  never  got  into  his  form ;  but  when 
he  was  installed  dean,  I  took  a  holiday  and  went  to 
Canterbury ;  and  when  he  died  I  went  there  to  the 
funeral  service.  We  never  allowed  a  word  to  be  said 
against  him  at  home.' 


156  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  One  or  two  more  anecdotes  before  ending.  The  first 
illustrates  his  generosity.  Thomas,  the  bursar  and  sub- 
sequently son-in-law,  went  to  remonstrate  with  him  at 
what  he  considered  his  extravagance  in  contributing  to 
school  objects.  'You  are  always  heading  lists  with 
twenty  or  thirty  guineas.  You  must  think  of  yourself 
more.'  '  Oh,'  he  exclaimed,  '  it  only  means  writing 
another  article  for  the  Contemporary  or  Fortnightly.' 
More  than  one  assistant  master  can  remember,  when  he 
was  out  of  sorts,  how  the  master  came  to  his  room,  and 
said,  '  Now,  don't  you  worry  yourself.  You  go  to  bed. 
I'll  take  your  form  in  the  morning.'  Not  many  men 
could  have  endured  the  extra  physical  strain,  still  fewer 
would  have  volunteered  it.  Of  his  prodigious  powers  of 
work  I  remember  a  conspicuous  instance.  At  the  close 
of  the  Christmas  holidays  I  went  to  see  him,  and  asked 
him  what  he  had  been  doing.  'Looking  through  the 
proofs  of  the  "  Life  of  Christ,"  '  he  replied.  '  Have  you 
not  been  away  ? '  I  asked.  '  No,'  he  answered,  '  I 
have  worked  at  them  thirteen  hours  a  day  the  whole 
time.'  I  remonstrated.  '  Oh  no,'  he  said,  '  change  of 
work  is  as  good  as  a  holiday.' 

"  It  has  been  said  that  Farrar  was  interested  in  the 
whole  life  of  the  school.  He  breathed  spirit  into 
departments  in  which  he  had  small  knowledge.  He 
was  no  musician,  but  he  greatly  encouraged  the  singing 
of  the  school,  and  the  House  Glee  Competition  was 
instituted  in  his  time.  He  had  been  Chaplain  to  the 
Rifle  Corps  at  Harrow,  and  took  great  interest  in  the 
drill  and  shooting.  The  shooting  Eight  won  the  Ash- 
burton  shield  at  Wimbledon  for  the  first  and  only  time  in 
the  history  of  the  school.  Marlborough  had  not  beaten 
Rugby  at  cricket  for  nine  years  when  he  came.  It  won 
during  his  first  two  years,  was  beaten  the  next  three 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  157 


years,  and  won  again  in  his  last  year  and  the  year  after. 
Of  course  it  would  be  absurd  to  attribute  these  successes 
to  him,  but  his  famous  '  Collapse '  sermon  shows  the 
power  of  stimulus  which  he  could  exert.  We  had  been 
badly  beaten  the  year  before  by  Rugby.  Next  year, 
shortly  before  the  end  of  term,  when  the  match  at 
Lord's  was  to  come  off,  the  master  preached  on  '  Moral 
Collapses.'  The  real  object  of  the  sermon  came  after 
a  pause  at  the  close.  '  And  a  defeat  in  cricket  may  be 
due  to  a  collapse,  —  to  a  moral  collapse.'  On  this  he 
briefly  but  powerfully  dwelt,  ending  with  a  quotation 
from  Assheton  Smith  (!),  apropos  of  taking  a  fence : 
'Throw  your  heart  over,  and  your  horse  and  body  will 
follow.' 

"The  period  from  1871  to  1876  was  one  of  great  and 
undoubted  success.  Farrar  had  relieved  Marlborough 
from  anxiety  by  his  coming.  He  had  thrown  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  his  work  during  his  mastership.  'We 
knew  that  he  could  not  stay  long,  that  he  was  on  the 
high-road  to  preferment,'  said  one  of  his  best  and  most 
devoted  pupils,  'but  that  did  not  interfere  with  his 
giving  his  best  to  the  school.'  Widely  known  and 
famous  as  he  was,  he  made  Marlborough  more  widely 
known.  In  an  important  debate  at  a  head-master's 
conference,  when  another  great  head-master,  Dr.  Percival, 
and  he  were  ranged  on  opposite  sides,  on  rising  to  speak 
he  was  introduced  in  a  ballad  sent  to  the  Journal  of 
Education  as  '  Great  Marlborough  preluding  war.'  The 
list  of  university  successes  gained  by  the  school  during 
his  five  and  a  half  years  holds  its  own  well  with  any 
period  of  equal  length  preceding  or  succeeding. 

"  Farrar  was  an  idealist,  an  ardent,  perhaps  impatient, 
enthusiast,  conscious  of  a  mission,  conscious  also  of  his 
own  powers  and  of  the  obligation  laid  upon  him.  Such 


158  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


he  appeared,  doubtless,  and  possibly  such  alone,  to 
those  who  had  not  known  him  at  closer  quarters,  or  in 
his  own  home,  where  all  that  was  simplest,  most  genuine, 
and  tenderest  in  his  nature  was  revealed.  And  respice 
finem.  In  his  last  afflicting  and  humiliating  illness  he 
was  visited  by  a  friend  of  a  kinsman  of  mine  to  whom 
he  said,  '  Farrar  had  preached  many  an  eloquent  sermon, 
but  nothing  in  his  life  was  so  eloquent  as  the  patience 
and  resignation  with  which  he  bore  his  suffering.  Then 
the  real  man  shone  out.' 

"  No  sketch  of  Farrar's  life  at  Marlborough  would  be 
adequate  without  some  allusion,  however  brief,  to  the 
hospitality  ever  freely  accorded  at  the  Lodge  to  boys 
present  and  past,  to  masters,  and  to  guests.  It  can 
easily  be  understood  how  great  a  refreshment  such  hos- 
pitality is  felt  to  be  after  the  daily  routine  of  class  room 
and  playground.  But  it  was  when  only  one  or  two  were 
present,  when  one  was  privileged  to  be,  as  it  were,  one 
of  the  family,  that  Farrar  was  seen  at  his  best  in  his  own 
home.  And  Mrs.  Farrar  —  may  I  without  a  breach  of 
good  taste  say  how  much  we  all  owed  to  her  and  how 
gratefully  we  remember  her  kindness  ?  Always  the  same, 
gentle,  companionable,  putting  you  at  once  at  your  ease, 
sincere,  you  soon  found  out  how  exceedingly  competent 
she  was,  how  invaluable  a  help  to  her  husband,  how  wise 
and  true  a  guide  to  her  children.  Much  more  might  be 
said ;  I  trust  that  I  have  not  said  too  much. 

"  On  the  morning  of  his  leaving,  I  thanked  him  for 
what  he  had  done  for  the  school,  and  for  his  personal 
kindness  to  me,  expressing  at  the  same  time  my  sense  of 
his  loss.  At  once,  but  with  deliberation  and  conviction, 
he  uttered  one  of  those  common-sense  and  just  judgments 
with  which  now  and  again  he  startled  one.  '  No  one  is 
necessary  here.    This  school  is  too  well  established.' 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  159 


Strictly  true,  as  I  at  once  admitted,  but  that  it  is  true  is 
due  to  a  few  able  and  devoted  men  like  Farrar. 

"  In  a  prayer  which  the  late  Dean  wrote  for  the  school 
he  bids  us  thank  God  '  for  our  benefactors,  and  for  the 
lives  and  examples  of  all  who  have  served  Him  here.' 
Among  these  he  will  ever  hold  a  conspicuous  place." 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  James,  Head-master  of  Rugby  and  a 
former  colleague  of  my  father's,  has  kindly  allowed  me 
to  insert  the  following  appreciation  : 1  — 

"  It  is  a  sad  pleasure  for  me  to  write,  as  best  I  may, 
a  sketch  of  Dr.  Farrar  for  the  Marlburian.  It  must  be 
clearly  understood  that  I  can  only  do  so  from  the  point 
of  view  of  one  who  was,  for  all  too  brief  a  period,  associ- 
ated as  a  subordinate  with  him  in  his  magisterial  work. 
What  he  was  to  the  school  must  be  told  by  one  of  his 
Sixth  form. 

"  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  Farrar  was  once  an 
assistant  master  at  Marlborough  in  its  early  days  of 
struggle.  He  used  to  tell,  with  an  amused  sense  of  con- 
trast, stories  of  that  bygone  time ;  how  once  he  had  wit- 
nessed a  procession  of  hungry  boys  parading  the  court 
with  a  banner  inscribed  with  the  words '  Bread  or  blood' ; 
or  of  the  unfriendly  relations,  which  he  strove  hard  to 
ameliorate,  between  boys  and  masters.  Nothing,  per- 
haps, that  he  ever  wrote  was  more  graceful  than  the 
little  poem  in  which  he  appealed  to  the  Marlburians  of 
a  later  generation — 'the  glad  gatherers  of  the  golden 
grain  '  —  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  Dr.  Wilkinson, 
the  first  master  of  the  college.  But  it  is  of  his  head- 
mastership  that  I  must  chiefly  speak.  It  was  my  privi- 
lege to  serve  as  an  assistant  master  at  Marlborough, 

1  For  permission  to  use  this  and  the  following  extract  I  am  indebted  to 
the  courtesy  of  the  editor  of  the  Marlburian.  —  R.  F. 


i6o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


under  Bradley  for  a  year,  and  under  Farrar  for  three. 
Seldom,  indeed,  has  it  been  the  good  fortune  of  any 
public  school  to  be  ruled  by  two  masters  of  such  emi- 
nence in  succession ;  and  seldom,  surely,  have  two  suc- 
cessive masters  been  in  such  marked  contrast.  I  was 
not  at  Marlborough  when  the  change  came,  nor  until 
a  year  or  two  afterwards,  having  taken  up  work  at  Ox- 
ford in  the  meantime.  But  I  knew  from  my  friends  on 
the  staff,  and  I  learnt  afterwards  for  myself,  how  great 
in  some  ways  the  change  was,  and  how  it  had  impressed 
itself  upon  the  school :  naturally  it  was  some  time  before 
boys  or  masters  became  reconciled  to  it  —  for  public 
schools  are  conservative  institutions.  Both  Bradley  and 
Farrar  were  inspiring  chiefs,  but  the  stimulus  was  con- 
veyed in  very  different  ways.  Bradley  had  been  vivacious, 
curt,  plain-spoken,  ubiquitous,  restlessly  energetic.  If 
the  truth  must  be  told,  we  junior  masters  (I  am  not  sure 
that  I  might  not  leave  out  the  word  'junior')  were  not 
a  little  afraid  of  him,  popular  as  he  was  with  us.  But 
Farrar  was  nothing  if  not  dignified,  courteous,  consider- 
ate, conciliatory.  It  was  not  that  he  could  not  be  angry  ; 
many  a  time  I  have  seen  the  indignation  gather  upon 
his  brow  when  he  had  to  deal  with  meanness,  disloyalty, 
or  wrong-doing.  But  he  was  by  nature  far  less  critical 
than  Bradley ;  generous  of  his  praise,  as  of  everything 
else ;  easily  wounded  by  unfair  criticism  himself,  and 
so  scrupulously  careful  not  to  wound  others.  Disre- 
spect he  could  not  tolerate ;  alike  in  boys  and  in  col- 
leagues it  hurt  him.  I  remember  once  a  junior  master 
began  a  letter  to  him  with  '  My  dear  Farrar.'  It  was  a 
pure  lapsus  calami,  I  believe  ;  but  it  called  out  a  dignified, 
if  kindly,  rebuke.  The  master  was  bound,  Farrar  wrote, 
to  exact,  even  from  colleagues,  the  respect  due  to  his 
position.    The  line  of  teaching  which  these  two  great 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  161 

masters  followed  (I  cannot  help  perpetually  comparing 
them)  was  very  different,  as  the  Sixth  of  1871  found, 
and  as  we  found  who  were  in  charge  of  lower  forms. 

"  Where  Bradley  had  insisted  upon  accurate  scholar- 
ship, Farrar  exacted  literary  attainment.  I  do  not  mean 
by  that  that  either  neglected  the  other  point ;  I  could 
quote  amusing  stories  of  Bradley's  merciless  denunciation 
of  illiteracy  and  the  stimulus  he  gave  to  private  reading ; 
and  I  remember  how  Farrar  came  away  quite  refreshed, 
as  he  put  it,  from  a  review  of  a  form  taught  by  a  spe- 
cially scholarly  master.  But  where  Bradley  had  looked 
first  and  foremost  for  accuracy,  Farrar  demanded  the 
knowledge  of  grammatical  parallels  and  literary  illustra- 
tions. Where  Bradley  had  encouraged  the  intelligent 
teaching  of  syntax  largely  as  an  aid  to  the  prose  com- 
position which  he  valued  so  highly  as  an  instrument  of 
education,  and  in  which  he  was  himself  so  great  a  mas- 
ter, Farrar's  interests  centred  rather  on  the  classification 
of  points  of  style,  and  on  the  elements  of  philology,  — 
a  study  which  seemed  likely  at  that  time  to  take  a  more 
important  position  in  the  curriculum  of  school  and  uni- 
versity than  it  has  since  actually  attained,  and  in  which 
he  had  been  a  pioneer.  These  reviews  of  our  forms 
were  a  considerable  power  in  the  school.  I  have  heard 
boys  say  that  they  went  into  a  review  of  Bradley's  in 
a  state  of  absolute  terror,  well  knowing  the  '  verbera 
linguae '  which  they  had  to  expect  if  they  did  not  know 
their  work.  The  review  was  thoroughly  business-like  ; 
every  boy  was  '  put  on,' and  the  marks  carefully  assigned. 

"  Farrar's  reviews  were  much  more  of  a  literary  lesson. 
Only  a  few  boys  construed ;  the  marks  represented  less 
the  gradations  of  individual  knowledge  or  ignorance 
than  the  efficiency  of  the  form  as  a  whole.  And  what 
we  learnt  principally  from  his  reports  was  our  success 


1 62  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


or  failure  in  interesting  our  boys  in  the  literary  associ- 
ations of  their  work.  No  doubt  each  method  of  exami- 
nation had  its  special  value.  Farrar's  was  the  harder 
to  satisfy,  but  we  grumbled  sometimes  that  it  was  too 
much  in  the  air,  and  too  little  in  the  nature  of  a  per- 
sonal incentive  to  work  so  far  as  the  boys  were  con- 
cerned. But,  as  he  once  put  it,  he  found  them  'with 
the  dust  of  their  grinding  thick  upon  them,'  and  his 
desire  was  for  more  sweetness  and  light ;  and  to  our- 
selves I  am  sure  the  results,  and  the  master's  criticisms, 
were  valuable  as  encouraging  a  broader  view  of  teach- 
ing, as  well  as  a  wider  range  of  reading  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher. 

"  But  the  channel  through  which  Farrar's  influence 
principally  found  its  way  into  the  school  was,  unques- 
tionably, the  Chapel  pulpit.  His  sermons  were  an  un- 
failing source  of  delight,  interesting  the  dullest,  kindling 
the  ablest,  going  to  the  very  core  of  boy  life,  moral  and 
spiritual.  His  style  is  familiar  to  us  all ;  it  has  been 
severely  criticised  a  thousand  times,  not  always  fairly. 
Reviewers,  Farrar  complained  to  me  once,  never  recog- 
nised that,  bad  or  good,  it  was  at  any  rate  natural  to 
him,  and  that  he  could  not  substitute  another  for  it. 
It  was  due  in  part,  he  said,  to  his  fondness  for  certain 
authors  (among  whom  he  mentioned  Jeremy  Taylor)  in 
early  life.  At  any  rate,  the  sermons  were  written  always 
in  most  pictorial  English  ;  they  were  replete  with  illus- 
trations from  poetry,  history,  biography,  which  he  poured 
forth  '  like  wealthy  men  who  care  not  how  they  give,' 
vigorous,  pathetic,  denunciatory,  persuasive,  by  turns ; 
but  always  splendidly  eloquent.  The  veriest  dullard 
could  not  but  attend,  for  though  parts  of  them  were 
only  for  the  ablest  of  his  congregation,  there  was  al- 
ways ample  food  for  the  youngest.    Take  them  all  in 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  163 


all,  I  have  heard  no  such  sermons  to  boys  as  Farrar's. 
Who  that  listened  to  them,  or  has  read  them,  could  ever 
forget,  for  instance,  the  one  on  poor  Congreve's  death ; 
or  that  in  which  he  described  the  martyrdom  of  Bishop 
Coleridge  Patteson  ?  They  owed  something,  no  doubt, 
to  that  clear,  mellow,  and  powerful  voice  of  his  —  so 
singularly  musical  in  one  who  had  not  been  endowed 
by  nature  with  the  gift  of  a  specially  musical  ear. 

"  Then  there  was  his  warm,  personal  interest  in  us  all, 
masters  as  well  as  boys.  In  my  own  case  it  was  deep 
and  life-long,  and  I  can  never  forget  or,  alas !  repay  it. 
No  trouble  was  so  great,  no  pressure  of  work  so  severe, 
as  to  prevent  his  doing  a  service  for  one  who  was,  or 
had  been,  a  colleague. 

"  His  power  of  work  was  stupendous  (the  word  is  no 
whit  too  strong).  How  he  found  the  time,  amid  all  the 
thousand  duties  of  a  head-master's  life,  to  write  such  a 
book  as  the  '  Life  of  Christ,' 1  has  always  been  a  marvel 
to  me.  No  doubt  he  was  a  singularly  rapid  worker,  but 
it  was  an  extraordinary  achievement. 

"I  must  say  something  —  and  yet  I  feel  the  subject 
is  too  sacred  to  say  much  —  about  the  home  life  at  the 
Lodge,  and  afterwards  at  Westminster  and  Canterbury. 
None  of  us  who  were  privileged  to  get  glimpses  of  it 
from  time  to  time  —  and  Farrar's  boundless  hospitality 
made  this  possible  for  most  of  us  —  will  readily  forget 
them.  His  home  was  all  that  an  English  home  can  be 
at  its  best.  The  love  of  wife  and  children  lay  deeply 
rooted  in  his  heart,  and  they  repaid  it  with  a  true  devo- 
tion. This  sketch  would  be  incomplete  in  a  most  vital 
point  if  it  omitted  to  say  how  much  we  all,  and  the 

1  It  is  from  no  want  of  appreciation  that  I  have  not  attempted  to  deal 
here  with  Farrar's  works.  Being  public  property  they  seemed  to  lie  out- 
side the  limits  of  a  personal  sketch  such  as  this.  —  Note  by  Dr.  James. 


1 64  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


school  at  large,  owed  to  Mrs.  Farrar's  gentle,  gracious 
presence,  unvarying  kindness,  and  keen  interest  in  all 
that  concerned  Marlborough.  It  was  a  privilege,  too, 
to  meet,  from  time  to  time,  the  well-known  men  of  whom 
the  master  counted  so  many  among  his  friends,  and  who 
visited  him  at  the  Lodge.  It  was  a  great  wrench  to  him 
when  he  decided  to  accept  the  canonry  at  Westminster. 
'To  my  inexpressible  sorrow,'  he  wrote,  'I  am  called, 
by  what  seems  the  clear  voice  of  duty,  to  leave  my 
beloved  Marlborough  —  never  more  flourishing,  never 
more  happy  or  more  blessed  than  it  has  been  this  year. 
I  must  not  look  back,  but  let  the  brightness  of  the  past 
cheer  me  in  the  dimmer,  sadder,  more  uncertain  future.' 
The  work,  with  the  addition  of  his  continued  literary 
labours,  was  oppressively  hard.  '  The  Abbey  alone 
would  furnish  me  with  employment  more  than  ample,' 
he  wrote  again,  'and  the  parish  [of  St.  Margaret's] 
ten  times  more.'  No  need  to  tell  what  a  power  his 
sermons  were  in  the  Abbey.  But  we  had  all  hoped 
he  would  be  made  a  bishop  ;  and  it  was,  no  doubt,  a 
trial  to  him,  conscious  as  he  was  of  his  own  powers 
and  services,  to  see  third-rate  men  promoted  over  his 
head  to  episcopal  rank." 

Prof.  C.  E.  Vaughan,  an  old  Marlburian  and  formerly 
head  of  the  school  under  my  father,  thus  writes  to  the 
Marlburian ;  — 

"  Dr.  Bradley  died  on  the  13th  of  March  ;  Dr.  Farrar  on 
the  22nd.  It  is  not  often  that  a  school  has  been  called 
upon  to  mourn  two  such  losses  within  so  short  a  space, 
and  it  is  strange  that  two  men,  so  closely  connected  in 
the  work  of  their  lives,  should  have  been  so  closely 
joined  in  death. 

"When  Dr.  Farrar  was  appointed  Head-master,  in  1871, 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  165 


he  was  met  by  a  task  about  as  difficult  as  it  is  possible 
to  imagine;  a  task  before  which  he  himself  might  not 
unnaturally  have  quailed.  He  was  called  to  follow  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  teachers  and  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful Head-masters  ever  known.  And  I  fear  it  cannot 
be  said  that  the  Sixth  Form  of  that  day  did  much  to 
lighten  his  burden.  With  the  perverse  loyalty  of  youth, 
we  were  more  concerned  to  show  our  devotion  to  the 
parted,  than  to  welcome  the  coming  guest.  Everything 
that  was  not  done  exactly  as  Bradley  would  have  done 
it,  was  looked  at  with  suspicion.  All  the  ideas  which 
made  the  originality  of  our  new  teacher  were  set  down 
as  wandering  fires  to  be  followed  at  our  peril.  We  con- 
veniently forgot  that  nothing  would  have  been  so  bad 
for  the  school,  and  nothing  probably  so  hateful  to  our- 
selves, as  a  copy,  however  good,  of  the  excellent  thing 
which  had  just  been  taken  from  us  ;  and  that  having 
lost  an  original  man  of  one  sort,  we  were  fortunate  — 
more  fortunate  than  we  deserved  — in  finding  an  original 
man  of  quite  another  sort. 

"  Many  of  those  who  began  by  nursing  this  prejudice 
came  before  long  to  feel  ashamed  of  it,  and  have  never 
ceased  to  reproach  themselves  for  their  folly.  It  was 
a  bad  way  of  showing  our  gratitude  to  Bradley  ;  it  was  a 
lamentable  display  of  ingratitude  toward  Farrar. 

"  It  is  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  tributes  to  Farrar's 
powers,  both  of  intellect  and  character,  that  he  should 
have  speedily  triumphed  over  such  a  prejudice.  Even 
before  the  first  generation,  the  generation  which  had 
been  under  the  spell  of  Bradley,  had  passed  away,  the 
great  qualities  of  Farrar  had  begun  to  make  themselves 
felt.  And  long  before  his  too  short  time  at  Marl- 
borough was  at  an  end,  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  they 
were  universally  acknowledged.    It  was  simple  justice 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


—  the  justice  which,  in  the  long  run,  comes  to  every 
man  of  lofty  character  and  conspicuous  talents  — that 
this  should  be  the  case.  And,  if  any  man  ever  deserved 
the  admiration  and  affection  of  his  pupils,  surely  it  was 
Farrar.  Personally,  the  longer  I  live,  the  more  strongly 
I  feel  the  vastness  of  the  debt  I  owe  to  the  quickening 
power  of  his  teaching.  And  I  have  no  doubt  that 
others  feel  the  same. 

"  Farrar  brought  to  his  work  two  qualities  which  have 
always  been  rare  among  masters,  and  which,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  by  no  means  tend  to  become  commoner.  What- 
ever the  critics  may  have  said,  —  but  the  really  com- 
petent critics  never  said  it,  —  he  had  a  wide,  deep  and 
constantly  increasing  knowledge :  the  knowledge  not 
of  the  accomplished  man  of  letters,  but  of  the  genuine 
scholar.  And  he  had  also  a  literary  instinct  such  as 
few  teachers  can  ever  have  approached. 

"  His  thirst  for  knowledge  was  an  education  in  itself 
to  those  he  taught.  Books  of  which  we  had  never  heard 
were  constantly,  though  metaphorically,  hurled  at  our 
heads;  fields  of  interest,  of  which  we  had  never  dreamed, 
were  opened  to  all  who  had  the  wits  to  enter.  Without 
any  desire  to  do  so  —  certainly  without  any  delight  in 
doing  so  — he  made  us  feel  our  own  ignorance  at  every 
moment ;  and,  if  we  had  any  grace  in  us,  he  made  us 
eager  to  share  what  we  could  appropriate  of  his 
knowledge. 

"  It  is  sometimes  said  that  a  teacher  has  no  need  of 
learning;  that  the  'gift  of  teaching'  —  a  certain  method, 
natural  or  acquired  —  is  all  that  he  should  ask  or  seek. 
'  Give  me  half  an  hour's  start  on  a  book,'  such  a  teacher 
has  been  heard  to  exclaim,  '  and  I  will  back  myself  to 
do  as  much  for  my  pupils  with  it  as  the  greatest 
scholar.'    To  such  follies  as  this  Farrar  was  a  standing 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  167 


rebuke.  He  knew  that  a  teacher  is  the  better  for  every 
scrap  of  knowledge  he  can  add  to  his  store.  And  it  is 
just  because  his  own  knowledge  was  so  wide  and  so 
well  under  command,  that  so  many  of  his  pupils  owe 
their  first  conscious  love  of  knowledge  to  his  lessons. 
Many  of  us  may  feel  that  we  do  little  credit  to  our  old 
master ;  and  that  we  might  have  done  much  more  than 
we  have  done  to  follow  his  lead.  But  all  who  have 
thought  about  the  matter  must  be  aware  how  much  he 
had  to  offer;  they  must  know  that  it  was  something 
immeasurably  more  valuable  than  what  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  teachers,  even  of  good  teachers,  have  it  in  their 
power  to  give. 

"  His  knowledge  covered  a  very  wide  range  of  sub- 
jects. Natural  history,  philology,  theology,  history,  all 
came  within  his  net.  But  it  was  his  literary  knowledge 
and  his  literary  sense  that  probably  made  the  deepest  im- 
pression on  his  pupils.  Here  was  a  man  who  knew  the 
literature  of  his  own  country  as  well  as  he  knew  that  of 
the  ancients.  That,  in  itself,  was  surprising  enough  in 
those  days ;  let  us  hope  that  it  is  commoner  now. 
Here  again  was  a  man  who,  with  all  his  feeling  for 
words,  never  stopped  short  at  the  mere  words  of  his 
author,  but  always  insisted  on  looking  through  them  to 
the  thought,  the  imagination,  the  human  heart,  at  work 
behind.  There  must  have  been  many  to  whom  this  was 
a  revelation.  I  am  sure  it  was  to  me.  And  this  also 
was  one  of  the  greatest  services  a  teacher  could  possibly 
have  rendered  to  his  pupils. 

"  His  literary  sense  made  him,  among  other  things,  an 
excellent  translator.  Snatches  of  his  extemporised  ver- 
sions of  Tacitus  and  Aristophanes  —  rather  a  queer 
combination,  especially  for  so  grave  a  man  —  still  linger 
in  my  memory  after  more  than  thirty  years.    But  it 


168  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


was  perhaps  of  yet  greater  use  from  the  power  it  gave 
him  of  presenting  every  subject  in  a  way  which  was 
always  effective,  and  not  seldom,  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  word,  enlightening.  As  his  books  and  published 
sermons  show,  he  had  an  infallible  instinct  for  seizing 
exactly  the  points  which  were  most  certain  to  rouse  the 
interest  of  his  hearers,  and  combining  them  in  the  most 
vivid  and  attractive  setting.  He  was  a  born  orator. 
And  the  gift  that  made  him  so,  though  it  may  sometimes 
have  carried  him  away,  was  a  gift  that  any  teacher 
might  do  well  to  covet.  If  it  were  a  commoner  posses- 
sion than  it  is  with  teachers,  there  would  be  less  igno- 
rance and  more  keenness  among  their  pupils. 

"  But,  after  all,  it  would  give  a  very  false  impression  to 
speak  merely  of  Farrar's  intellectual  qualities.  They 
may  have  been  the  first  things  to  strike  one.  They  are 
bound  to  come  first  into  one's  mind,  when  one  thinks 
of  his  influence  as  a  teacher.  But  behind  them  all  was 
a  character  of  singular  nobility ;  transparently  simple; 
keenly  sensitive ;  capable  of  strong  indignation,  but 
quick  to  forgive  and  forget,  however  just  might  be  his 
ground  of  offence ;  full  of  self-denial ;  full  also  of  kind- 
ness and  generosity  toward  others. 

"  Perhaps  his  native  kindness  was  never  shown  so 
strongly  as  when  any  of  his  pupils  were  in  trouble  or 
ill-health.  He  would  come  to  sit  with  them;  or  —  which 
he  knew  would  give  yet  greater  pleasure  —  would  ask 
Mrs.  Farrar  to  come  in  his  stead.  He  would  supply 
them  with  a  mount  from  his  own  stable,  and  sometimes 
come  himself  for  a  gallop  with  them  on  the  Downs. 
Even  when  work  was  most  pressing,  he  would  find  time 
for  genial  services  of  this  sort;  perching  himself,  stiff 
and  stark,  on  the  box  of  his  carriage  to  correct  proofs, 
while  the  invalid  sat  behind  in  state.     There  was  a 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  169 


comic  side  to  his  appearance  on  these  occasions,  as  he 
himself,  in  all  probability,  was  well  aware.  But  the 
kindness  was  none  the  worse  for  that.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  recipient  of  it,  if  he  had  any  humour,  was 
likely  to  be  all  the  better  pleased. 

"  It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  talents  so  brill- 
iant should  be  allowed  to  remain  for  ever  in  the  service 
of  a  school,  —  not  even  if  the  school  were  Marlborough 
itself.  In  less  than  six  years  Dr.  Farrar  was  called  to 
Westminster.  There  he  remained,  one  of  the  most 
powerful  religious  influences  in  London,  till,  some  six 
years  ago,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Deanery  of  Canter- 
bury. It  is  a  deep  reproach  to  successive  Ministers 
that  he  was  never  advanced  further,  to  a  bishopric. 
But  there  is  a  sense  in  which  his  pupils  and  all  who 
love  his  memory  may  be  proud  of  the  slight.  It  was 
the  price  that  he  paid,  and  paid  willingly,  for  his  advo- 
cacy of  what  he  knew  to  be  the  truth." 

Another  old  Marlburian,  C.  L.  Graves,  writes :  — 

"  Of  the  five  and  a  half  years  your  father  was  at 
Marlborough  I  spent  four  and  a  half  under  his  headship 
and  three  and  a  quarter  —  Easter  1872  to  Midsummer 
1875  —  in  the  Sixth.  In  his  youth  he  had  known  my 
mother's  family  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  was  thus  pre- 
disposed to  take  a  friendly  interest  in  me,  but  I  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  unfailing  kindness  I  received 
at  his  hands  was  in  any  way  exceptional. 

"  As  a  teacher  he  was  eminently  stimulating.  The 
actual  number  of  hours  spent  in  school  by  the  Sixth  — 
especially  by  those  who,  like  myself,  were  on  obtaining 
the  Responsions  Certificate  let  off  mathematics  —  was 
few,  but  my  impression  is  that  Farrar  was  most  success- 


170  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


ful  in  inducing  us  to  work  and  read  for  ourselves  out 
of  school. 

"Lege,  lege,  aliquid  haerebit  was  his  constant  cry,  and 
the  appeal  was  not  in  vain.  His  lessons  were  always 
picturesque,  notably  those  on  history,  which  were 
enriched  by  anecdotes  and  quotations,  largely  from 
the  poets,  which  he  delivered  almost  invariably  from 
memory. 

"  Toward  his  pupils  his  prevailing  temper  was  one  of 
geniality,  though  he  would  indulge  in  outbursts  of  indig- 
nation at  our  Philistinism  which  at  times  bordered  on 
the  comic.  '  Can  any  boy,'  I  remember  him  once  ask- 
ing, '  tell  me  within  five  hundred  years  the  date  of  Joan 
of  Arc  ? '  I  will  not  say  that  he  never  lost  his  equa- 
nimity, but  he  certainly  often  had  great  provocation. 
Some  of  the  cleverest  boys  in  the  Sixth  used  to  lay 
themselves  out  to  play  on  his  foibles  and  susceptibilities, 
yet  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  most  ingenious 
of  his  tormentors  had  all  the  while  a  warm  feeling  for 
the  Head-master  whose  sense  of  propriety  they  would 
from  time  to  time  endeavour  to  disconcert. 

"  As  an  instance  of  his  magnanimity  I  may  recall  the 
following  episode.  It  was  the  custom,  and  doubtless  is 
still,  that  in  competing  for  the  school  prizes  the  name  of 
the  competitor  should  be  enclosed  in  a  sealed  envelope 
bearing  a  motto  which  was  also  written  at  the  head  of 
the  exercise.  The  announcement  was  generally  made 
in  hall,  when  the  Head-master  broke  the  seal  of  the 
envelope  containing  the  motto  of  the  successful  compet- 
itor and  gave  out  the  winner's  name.  One  year  the 
subject  of  the  English  verse  prize  was  'The  Death  of 
Nelson ' ;  and  the  strongest  competitor  chose  as  his 
motto,  '  He's  gone  where  the  good  niggers  go,'  hoping 
that  if  he  succeeded  the  Head-master  would  be  obliged 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  171 


to  read  out  the  grotesque  legend.  I  am  sure  many 
Head-masters  in  similar  circumstances  would  have 
resented  such  a  piece  of  impertinence,  even  to  the 
extent  of  disqualifying  the  competitor  at  the  outset. 
There  was  no  doubt,  however,  as  to  the  superiority  of 
his  poem,  so  Farrar  awarded  him  the  prize,  contenting 
himself  with  merely  announcing  his  name. 

"  If  Farrar  never  overworked  his  Sixth,  he  never  spared 
himself.  Of  his  extraordinary  industry  ample  evidence 
will  be  found  in  other  parts  of  this  memoir.  Yet  he 
was  the  most  accessible  of  Head-masters,  always  ready 
to  give  information  or  advice.  His  lessons  were  pre- 
pared with  the  utmost  care  and  an  almost  superfluous 
wealth  of  illustration.  Indeed,  he  often  tried  to  get  too 
much  into  the  hour,  and  as  time  ran  short  the  lesson 
generally  became  a  monologue.  One  of  the  trivial 
things  that  stick  in  my  head  in  this  connection  is  the 
way  in  which,  when  he  was  pressed  for  time,  he  used 
occasionally  to  misplace  his  words.  1  My  dear  boy,' 
I  remember  his  once  saying,  appalled  by  a  confession 
of  unexpected  ignorance,  '  do  you  mean  to  say  that  you 
have  never  heard  of  the  famous  statue  of  Michael  Angelo 
by  Moses  ? ' 

"  Of  the  generous  and  gracious  hospitality  dispensed 
by  Farrar  and  his  wife  at  the  Lodge,  I  have  the  most 
grateful  and  pleasant  recollection.  In  hall,  too,  where 
he  regularly  dined  with  the  Sixth,  and  often  brought  a 
guest,  he  was,  for  all  his  stately  demeanour,  the  least 
formidable  of  companions,  his  invariable  mode  of 
address  being,  '  Come  and  talk  to  me,  and  amuse  me, 
my  dear  boy.' 

"Judged  by  the  test  of  numbers,  of  games,  and  of 
scholarship,  Farrar's  head-mastership  coincided  with  a 
period  of  great  prosperity  and  efficiency  at  Marlborough. 


172  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


The  school  was  fuller  than  it  had  ever  been  before :  in 
cricket  it  was  the  era  of  A.  G.  Steel :  the  Spencer  cup 
and  the  Ashburton  shield  were  won  for  the  first  time 
by  Marlborough  :  while  on  the  score  of  entrance  scholar- 
ships to  the  universities,  and  other  distinctions,  Marlbor- 
ough stood  in  the  front  rank  of  the  public  schools.  But 
that  Farrar  had  his  limitations  as  well  as  his  fine  quali- 
ties as  a  Head-master  it  would  be  impossible  to  deny. 
To  put  it  in  an  exaggerated  way,  he  was  incapable  of 
inspiring  terror  ;  underneath  that  impressive  and  stately 
exterior  there  was  a  very  soft  heart.  His  faults  and 
foibles  were  essentially  those  of  an  ingenuous  and  affec- 
tionate nature." 


My  father  did  not  impress  all  men,  or  all  boys,  alike. 
To  deny  that  he  had  the  defects  of  his 'qualities  would 
be  to  give  a  false  impression,  and  it  cannot  be  gainsaid 
that  there  have  always  been  some  who,  in  spite  of  love 
and  even  reverence  for  him,  were  apt  to  be  tickled  by 
incongruities  that  arose  at  times  from  contact  of  the  lofty 
and  remote  plane  on  which  he  lived  and  thought  with 
the  plane  of  commonplace  realities. 

I  give,  therefore,  some  extracts  from  an  article  written 
in  a  vein  of  kindly  cynicism,  contributed  to  the  Cornhill 
Magazine  by  one  of  his  old  pupils  "J.  D.  R."1 

There  are  spots  in  the  sun,  —  so  we  are  told.  I  do 
not  endorse  all  J.  D.  R.'s  criticisms,  and  whole-hearted 
admirers  of  my  father  may  think  that  he  has  been  over- 
keen  to  discern  and  expose  his  old  Marten  foibles,  but, 
despite  the  pin-pricks,  his  essay  is  on  the  whole  a  tribute 
of  genuine  if  somewhat  critical  appreciation :  — 

1  By  kind  permission  of  the  Editor  of  the  Cornhill  Magazine. 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  173 


******* 

"The  first  characteristic  of  Farrar  —  old  habit  makes 
me  drop  the  Dean  —  which  struck  the  average  school- 
boy was  his  grandeur  of  manner.  I  have  been  told  that 
those  who  first  met  F.  D.  Maurice  face  to  face  were 
similarly  struck. 

"  Aristotle's  description  of  the  external  marks  of  the 
grand  man  suited  Farrar  exactly.  '  His  gait  is  slow,  his 
voice  deep,  and  he  speaks  (like  heroic  verse)  in  meas- 
ured cadence.'  And  this  grand  manner  clung  to  him 
inalienably,  came  from  or  passed  into  his  very  soul,  I 
hardly  know  which.  At  all  events,  it  revealed  the  man's 
inmost  literary  bent.  What  was  most  genuine  in  his 
literary  tastes  impelled  him  toward  grandeur.  Bias 
toward  the  big  was  an  instinct  with  him.  Nothing  was 
more  inevitable  than  that  he  should  prefer  Milton  be- 
fore all  other  poets  and  Milton  before  all  other  prose 
writers.  Probably  he  is  the  only  nineteenth  century  man 
of  letters  of  whom  it  could  be  said  that  his  character 
was  steeped  and  saturated  in  Milton.  Admiration  for 
Milton  in  the  sense  in  which  Farrar  admired  Milton 
exists  no  longer,  if  it  ever  existed.  Some  attraction  or 
affinity  drove  him  toward  whatever  looked  large  and 
splendid,  away  from  what  looked  little  and  sordid.  That 
was  why  he  preferred  the  desolate  unearthly  glory  of 
Milton  to  the  glorious  humanity  of  Shakespeare.  In- 
deed, I  think  that  he  liked  Milton  the  more,  because 
Milton  is  remote  from  humanity,  shrinks  from  contact 
with  its  coarser  manifestations,  and  lets  us  too  easily 
forget  the  facts  of  actual  life.  Probably,  after  Milton, 
^Eschylus  came  next  in  his  heart  of  hearts :  and  his 
sympathy  was  intense  with  that  conception  of  the  awful- 
ness  of  fate  which  pervades  the  great  epic  and  dramatic 
writings  of  every  age.    His  sympathy  was  intense,  and 


174  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


it  was  also  discerning ;  and  he  used  to  illustrate  it  with 
unerring  felicity  by  such  and  such  an  adjective  in  the 
suitors'  scene  of  the  Odyssey,  such  and  such  a  turn  in 
the  plot  of  Macbeth,  such  and  such  sentences  in  Sopho- 
cles, or  even  by  a  well-known  passage  from  Shelley, 
and  a  little-known  passage  from  Froude.  When  the 
Erinyes  darkened  the  air,  Farrar  was  in  his  element. 
Now  Farrar  was  essentially  a  worshipper  of  poets  and 
the  like  ;  and  I  thought  then,  and  still  think,  that  these 
literary  tastes  formed  the  inmost  fibre  of  the  man,  and 
therefore  of  the  schoolmaster.  And  this  semblance  of 
grandeur  cast  on  everything  which  he  said  and  did  some- 
times some  shadow  of  itself,  sometimes  some  shadow  of 
its  opposite,  but  more  usually  an  intermixture  of  serious 
and  farcical  which  used  to  strike  us  as  so  whimsical  that 
we  could  not  laugh  at  it,  we  could  only  quote  it. 
******* 

"  I  can  certainly  remember  one  occasion  on  which  he 
conveyed  to  me  a  sense  of  pure  unadulterated  grandeur. 
It  was  one  Sunday  evening  when  he  read  in  chapel  the 
chapter  in  Job  about  the  horse,  with  a  classic  repose 
and  a  rich  resonance  of  voice,  the  like  of  which  I  have 
never  heard  since.  His  voice  was  not  suited  to  decla- 
mation, or  emotion,  or  variety  of  intonation  ;  but  if  only 
the  speaker  could  keep  quite  calm  and  speak  or  read 
something  which  really  suited  it,  it  was  matchless,  and 
Job  and  Isaiah  suited  it.  His  reading  of  Job  and  Isaiah 
has  produced  on  me  the  effect  of  some  great  but  severe 
piece  of  music  which  bears  being  played  monotonously 
—  say,  some  fugue  of  Bach  —  performed  on  a  perfect 

instrument. 

******* 

"  As  I  have  said,  under  certain  conditions  and  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  his  voice  could  produce  unrivalled  legato 


* 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  175 


effects  with  the  ease  and  certainty  of  some  old  Italian 
violoncello.  Now,  his  voice  was  always  with  him ;  and 
is  it  to  be  supposed  that  this  was  the  only  occasion  on 
which  it  did  justice  to  itself  ?  that  Milton,  ./Eschylus, 
and  those  passages  from  Shakespeare,  Sophocles,  and 
the  Odyssey  which  appealed  most  to  him  did  not  also 
elicit  the  same  nobility  of  tone  ?  Over  and  over  again 
while  teaching  us  he  spoke  and  read  big  things  well  and 
without  effort ;  and  whenever  he  did  so,  he  did  so  un- 
affectedly and  majestically.  The  best,  perhaps  the  only, 
philosophic  scrap  which  I  picked  up  from  his  table  was 
a  lucid  exposition  of  Coleridge's  distinction  between  the 
imagination  and  fancy.  But  I  am  much  more  grateful 
to  him  for  the  way  in  which  he  made  me  feel  in  my 
marrow  and  my  bones  some  far-off  inkling  of  the  imag- 
inative power  which  possessed  Milton  and  ^Eschylus, 
and  inspired  one  side  of  Homer's,  Sophocles',  and 
Shakespeare's  genius. 

"  Farrar's  industry  was  positively  tireless,  and  the  more 
so  because  he  did  nothing  by  deputy.  He  was  like 
perpetual  motion  or  radium.  The  man  who  was  form 
master  and  transacted  all  the  business  of  Head-master  of 
a  great  public  school,  preached  hundreds  of  sermons,  and 
crammed  his  '  Life  of  Christ '  with  references  to  scholars, 
pedants,  poets,  and  saints  during  those  five  brief  years, 
1 87 1  to  1876,  lived  a  crowded  life.  And  he  seemed  to 
have  thought  or  hoped  that  his  pupils  would  prove 
equally  energetic.  So  one  afternoon  he  took  some 
friends  on  a  surprise  visit  to  some  Sixth-form  studies  in 
'  A '  house,  thinking  or  hoping  to  find  its  occupants  — 
like  Charity  Pecksniff  —  at  work.  O  sancta  simplicitas! 
The  industrious  apprentices  were  caught  red-handed  in 
the  very  act  of  enjoying  '  a  brew,'  —  or  ought  I  not  to 
write  brown-handed  ?    For  in  those  days  a  brew  con- 


176  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


sisted  of  cocoa  and  roast  potatoes.  At  the  next  lesson 
Farrar  began  to  narrate  the  story  of  his  disillusion  in  low, 
mourning  voice  thus  :  '  I  confidently  expected  to  be 
able  to  point  with  pride  to  my  sixth-form  boys  absorbed 
and  immersed  in  study  of  some  Attic  masterpiece  — 

"'Presenting  Thebes,  or  Pelops1  line, 
Or  the  tale  of  Troy  divine.' 

Then,  gradually  raising  his  voice,  he  continued :  '  But 
what  was  my  indignation,  vexation,  and  shame  when  I 
discovered  them  greedily  engaged  in  ravenously  devour- 
ing the  semese  fragments  of  a  barbaric  repast,'  and 
those  last  six  words,  uttered  fortissimo  with  intense 
vigour,  launched  him  on  a  speech  whose  sesquipe- 
dalian grandiloquence  Dr.  Middleton  might  have  envied. 
Indeed,  for  full  five  minutes  he  was  like  '  a  bitten  dic- 
tionary,' and  at  the  end  of  it  his  good  humour  was 
quite  restored.  Our  first  impression  was,  how  odd  it 
was  that  he  should  have  felt  disappointed  !  Our  second, 
Could  he  really  expect  to  crush  cocoa  and  roast  pota- 
toes with  those  furious  blows  of  his  Nasmyth  hammer  ? 
Our  third,  What  Gargantuan  humour !  What  fresh, 
fluent,  and  spontaneous  rhetoric !  How  purposeless  it 
seemed  when  levelled  against  our  cocoa  and  roast  po- 
tatoes !  How  effective  it  has  proved  against  his  dumps  ! 
True,  it  was  at  first  unconscious,  then  semi-conscious, 
and  only  at  last  (if  then)  wholly  conscious  ;  but  this 
only  made  the  humour  more  humorous.  Such  outbursts 
as  these  made  our  school  life  lively. 

******* 
"  I  have  referred  to  his  all-devouring  industry.  That 
in  itself  was  stimulating  and  inspiring.    Moreover,  he 
had  a  fine  memory  and  a  sense  of  the  picturesque  which 
fed  largely  on  literary  histories,  and  which  invested  our 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  177 

studies  of  Guizot,  Duruy,  Sismondi,  andMichelet  with  an 
unique  charm  and  fascination.  Yet  how  incredible  the 
advice  sounded  which  he  used  to  impart  to  all  and 
sundry,  students  and  athletes,  dull  and  clever,  when  he 
said  good-bye  to  them  for  the  holidays  :  'My  dear  boys, 
if  you  will  take  down  from  your  shelves  and  read  during 
the  holidays  some  good  books  like  Gibbon's  "  Rome," 
Milman's  "Latin  Christianity,"  Grote's  "Greece,"  or 
Mommsen's  "  Rome,"  it  will  be  so  much  clear  gain.' 
I  can  still  remember  the  innocent  assurance  with  which 
he  hurled  forty-one  volumes  at  our  devoted  heads,  and 
his  curious  emphasis  on  the  last  four  monosyllables  still 
rings  in  my  ears.  We  could  not  help  remembering  it, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the  reason  that  it  seemed 
absurd  ;  and,  we  said,  '  There  is  not  much  light  in  it,' 
and  we  smiled ;  then  we  thought  over  it  again,  and  said, 
'  There  is,  after  all,  some  true  fire  in  it,'  and  we  went 
away  and  worked.  It  is  possible  that  our  Head-master 
sent  toddlers  on  the  tramp  before  they  could  walk :  but 
not  all  the  sensible,  prompt,  and  decisive  persons  in  the 
world  will  ever  persuade  me  that  zeal  has  not  something 
to  do  with  knowledge.  And,  assuredly,  Farrar  was  a 
whole-hearted,  infectious,  proselytising  zealot. 

"Perhaps  Farrar's  influence  —  as  a  zealot  for  belles 
letlres  —  was  increased  by  the  sense  we  always  had  that 
he  formed  part  of  that  literary  world  to  which  he  was 
so  passionately  devoted.  We  did  not  derive  that 
sense  from  the  oddity  with  which  he  invariably  re- 
ferred to  Ruskin,  Stanley,  Browning,  Tennyson,  M. 
Arnold  and  others  as  his  1  eminent  friends  '  —  an  oddity 
to  which  it  would  require  Dickens's  pen  to  do  justice  — 
far  less  from  his  literary  ventures  :  but  partly  from  the 
fact  that  it  was  true  that  they  were  his  friends,  and 
partly  from  the  fact  that  when  at  his  best  and  simplest 


178  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


he  was  himself  a  distinguished  man  and  seemed,  as  I 
have  said,  at  home  with  big  things ;  and  partly  from  the 
quiet  way  in  which  he  would  now  and  then  repeat  some 
familiar  talk  with  one  of  that  glorious  company,  say, 
with  Browning  or  Tennyson.  Thus  he  would  tell  us  how 
Browning  told  him  how  the  famous  ride  from  Ghent  to  Aix 
had  set  pedants  diving  into  old  books,  but  that  it  really 
took  place  in  the  nineteenth  century  in  a  yacht  on  the 
Mediterranean.  And  I  remember  the  following  conver- 
sation early  in  1875  :  Dr.  F. :  '  I  have  just  been  staying 
with  Tennyson,  who  read  me  his  new  poem.  It  is  a  com- 
pletely new  departure.'  Precocious  Boy:  'Then  it  is 
a  drama.'  Dr.  F.,  with  withering  contempt :  '  My  dear 
boy!  do  you  really  think  that  I  am  a  little  child  with 
whom  you  can  play  at  guessing  ? '  And  the  P.  B. 
was  baffled.  A  few  months  later  '  Queen  Mary '  was 
published.  Farrar's  nearness  to  these  kings  of  dream- 
land invested  them  and  the  dreams  which  were  their 
subjects  with  a  reality  which  helped  us  to  understand 
literature. 

"  As  a  disciplinarian  he  was  unconventional,  to  say  the 
least.  He  did  not  take  a  drill-sergeant  view  of  his  pro- 
fession. He  gave  us  great  liberty,  rode  with  a  very  loose 
rein,  and  trusted  to  our  moral  force  instead  of  to  his  own 
vigilance.  However,  he  proclaimed  all  his  own  weak 
points  from  the  house-top ;  thus,  his  rooted  belief  that 
he  knew  boys  whom  he  did  not  know  led  him  into  many 
blunders,  for  which,  however,  his  evidently  kindly  mean- 
ing easily  atoned ;  and  the  too  great  care  with  which 
he  took  offence,  and  then  forgave,  looked  like  want  of 
judgment,  but  was  partly  due  to  the  unsuspecting  sincer- 
ity which  made  him  utter  everything  that  was  passing 
through  his  mind.  He  made  up  for  want  of  firmness  by 
excess  of  kindness.    Indeed,  as  a  form  master  he  would 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  179 


have  been  defenceless  against  his  pupils,  if  his  pupils  had 
been  against  him. 

******* 

"  Farrar's  stateliness  invariably  brought  his  blunders 
into  unfair  relief ;  his  unfailing  earnestness,  candour, 
and  kindness  invariably  corrected  the  effects  which  his 
blunders  might  have  otherwise  produced.  We  regarded 
his  great  qualities  with  admiration  and  his  failings  with 
tenderness. 

"  I  remember  the  shock  which  the  contrast  between 
Bradley  and  Farrar  produced  on  veteran  pupils  of  Brad- 
ley. One  of  them,  indeed,  who  was  neither  a  scoffer  nor 
a  Philistine,  wrote  to  his  late  Head-master  on  a  post-card, 
in  the  days  when  post-cards  were  the  last  new  thing :  — 

"  Dear  Dr.  Bradley, 
We  miss  you  sadly ; 
And  wish  Dr.  Farra' 
Would  go  back  to  Harra'. 

"  Other  veterans  carped  worse  even  than  this  bad  boy 
cackled;  and  predicted  a  plentiful  crop  of  milksops,  ped- 
ants, prigs,  and  sciolists  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  of  untamed  rebels  marching  under  the  banner  of 
inculta  rusticitas.  But  I  have  no  patience  with  those 
who  expect  any  class  of  people  to  conform  to  a  given 
type.  One  good  custom  can  corrupt  the  world  :  and  an 
able  man  who  means  well  and  is  true  to  himself  can 
break  the  best  rules.  Besides,  facts  are  on  the  side  of 
Farrar's  efficiency  as  a  Head-master.  It  was  just  after 
the  great  fever.  Parents  wrote  by  every  post  withdraw- 
ing their  sons'  names  from  the  doomed  school.  The 
bursar's  books  were  all  but  a  blank.  The  school  was 
threatened  with  extinction.  Then  Farrar  came,  and  the 
tide  turned.    He  raised  the  school  out  of  the  slough  of 


i8o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


despond.  During  the  five  years  that  followed,  the  for- 
tunes of  the  school  were  restored,  and  boys  who  were 
immediately  under  him  won  as  high  and  as  many  hon- 
ours as  those  won  in  Bradley's  five  best  years,  though 
the  credit  for  that  feat  was  doubtless  partly  due  to 
other  masters,  or  possibly  even  to  the  boys  themselves. 
Indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  see  who  could  have  done 
better  for  Marlborough  than  Farrar.  He  was  the  very 
man  for  the  post  at  that  time.  The  moment  required  a 
head-master  with  a  reputation  and  a  personality,  with  un- 
sparing energy  and  unflagging  enthusiasm  :  and  Farrar 
fulfilled  these  requirements. 

"  He  was  as  unlike  in  nature  to  the  typical  schoolboy 
as  it  was  possible  to  be.  None  could  have  ever  called 
him  'jolly  '  or  '  old  fellow.'  He  was  not  adamantine  and 
Rhadamanthine  like  Temple.  He  was  not  sunny,  sen- 
sible, and  wide-awake  like  Bradley.  He  was  sui  generis. 
At  first  sight  he  seemed  all  stateliness  and  austerity ; 
cold,  splendid,  one-sided,  unattainable  :  resembling  what 
he  used  to  call  '  that  burnt-out  old  cinder,  the  moon.' 
The  last  sight  of  him  revealed  only  an  excess  of  sincerity, 
sensitiveness,  candour,  and  kindliness.  Would  that 
Aristotle  or  some  one  else  had  invented  some  word  for 
this  particular  excess !  He  was  transparency  itself. 
The  first  quality  set  off  and  ennobled  the  very  rare  and 
high  enthusiasm  which  was  his  most  valuable  teaching 
asset ;  it  also  accounted  for  some  of  his  faults  and  ac- 
centuated all  his  faults  as  a  schoolmaster.  The  last 
quality  —  the  glass-house  in  which  he  lived — accounted 
for  his  other  faults  and  saved  him  from  the  effects 
of  all  his  faults  as  a  schoolmaster.  So  singular  a 
character  was  likely  to  be  misunderstood  by  geese  and 
carps  who  are  guided  by  superficial  impressions ;  nor 
was  it  likely  to  show  much  knowledge  of  the  characters 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  181 


of  others  ;  but  it  appealed  irresistibly  either  to  the  imagi- 
nation or  to  sympathy,  and  that  did  almost  if  not  quite 
as  well.  I  have  known  some  half-dozen  other  head-mas- 
ters, and  have  often  discussed  all  of  them  with  their 
pupils  —  for  I  fear  that  I  was  ever  a  gossip — but  I 
adhere  to  my  belief  that  Farrar  was  the  most  interesting 
of  the  lot. 

"  So  at  least  this  fine  man's  virtues  and  frailties  appeared 
to  me  a  generation  ago,  when  I  was  a  dreamy,  short- 
sighted, half-baked  schoolboy,  with  but  little  knowledge 
of  character  and  but  little  sense  of  proportion ;  and  as 
I  now  diffidently  raise  the  curtain  on  some  few  almost 
forgotten  scenes  of  private  experiences  in  a  public 
school,  I  only  hope  that  in  doing  so  I  have  offended 
none,  either  by  my  incapacity  or  by  my  mistakes,  either 
by  my  stinted  praise  or  mild  criticism,  because,  as  Dante 
said  of  his  old  schoolmaster,  — 

"  Che  in  la  mente  m'e  fitta  ed  or  m'accuora 
La  cara  e  buona  imagine  paterna 
Di  voi  quando  nel  mondo  ad  ora  ad  ora 
M1  insegnavata  come  I'  uom  s1  eterna.1' 

The  following  sketch,  by  my  sister  Mrs.  Thomas,  of 
my  father  in  his  home  life,  before  marriage  and  profes- 
sional duties  had  more  or  less  scattered  the  circle  of 
children,  seems  to  belong  rather  to  Marlborough  than 
to  Westminster  days,  and  is  therefore  inserted  here :  — 

"  In  looking  back  on  childhood,  it  is  difficult  to  analyze 
the  working  of  a  father's  influence  on  the  home.  That 
of  a  mother  is  all-pervading.  She  is  constantly  with  her 
children,  her  love  and  tender  care  surround  them,  and 
to  her  they  naturally  turn  for  every  detail  of  family  life, 
while  as  a  rule  the  father  has  more  power,  but  less 
opportunity,  more  authority  and  less  intercourse.  Yet 


1 82  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


it  is  undoubtedly  the  fact  that  a  good  father  —  more 
even  than  a  mother  —  forms  the  character  of  the  home. 
The  mother  carries  out  his  plans,  softens,  beautifies  his 
designs,  completes  the  whole  building,  but  the  master- 
hand  is  the  father's. 

"  In  the  case  of  my  father,  though  we  only  saw  him,  as 
a  rule,  in  the.  brief  intervals  of  his  incessant  work,  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  his  influence  was  the  under- 
current of  our  lives,  and  that  from  him  we  learnt  high, 
strong  lessons  of  self-denial,  self-control,  self-culture, 
and  above  all  self-surrender  to  God.  He  left  us  a  heri- 
tage of  good,  for  which  we  and  our  children  after  us 
may  well  be  called  to  give  account.  A  man  of  few 
words,  with  scarcely  any  aptitude  for  ordinary  chit-chat, 
a  remark  from  him  came  with  more  than  ordinary 
weight,  and  a  conversation  with  him  taught  and  sug- 
gested more  than  school  books  could  do.  It  gave  us  a 
consciousness  of  worlds  beyond  our  petty  ken ;  it  opened 
glimpses  of  literature  and  art ;  it  awoke  the  possibility 
of  travelling  for  ourselves  in  those  regions  of  knowledge 
and  research  which  his  own  steps  trod  so  unweariedly. 
Our  petty  ideals  fell  away  before  his  lofty  standard  of 
right  and  high  endeavour,  and  yet  with  him  it  was 
always  '  Go  and  do  thou  likewise,'  so  that  we  were 
borne  along  the  wave  of  his  enthusiasm,  not  drowned 
by  its  volume.  He  never  quenched  our  small  aspira- 
tions but  listened  kindly  to  the  crudest  opinion  so  long 
as  conceit  was  not  mixed  up  with  it.  This  was  one 
secret  of  his  influence  over  children  and  young  people. 
Even  the  hobbledehoy  stage  learnt  self-respect  under 
the  courteous  sympathy  that  encouraged  their  efforts. 
'  Teach  thy  tongue  to  say,  I  do  not  know,'  he  once 
remarked  with  a  kindly  smile  to  a  blushing,  awkward 
child,  overwhelmed  with  shame   at  being  unable  to 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  183 


answer  a  question  put  to  her  at  the  luncheon-table  ;  only 
that  —  yet  the  smile  and  aptly  quoted  proverb  relieved 
the  shame  of  self-conscious  youth  and  put  in  its  stead 
desire  to  clear  the  reproach  of  ignorance  by  effort  at 
improvement. 

"  I  never  remember  my  father  giving  us  a  set  lesson  ; 
he  taught  us  more  by  apposite  suggestion,  by  allusions 
to  books  or  events,  by  anecdote  or  illustration,  especially 
he  taught  by  his  own  appreciation  of  the  good  and  great, 
making  us  see  for  ourselves  what  was  worth  learning. 
I  might  mention  many  instances  of  this.  An  episode  of 
Francis  d'Assisi's  life  told  in  a  sermon,  and  in  reply 
to  our  questions  a  few  glowing  words  on  the  saint,  with 
'  you  should  read  it  for  yourself,'  and  the  volume  is 
handed  over  as  is  anything  that  we  ask  for  from  his 
study.  (Read  it  we  did,  and  many  another  book  the 
same  way.)  A  walk  among  the  cornfields  on  a  doubtful 
summer  afternoon  while  1  waves  of  shadow  went  over 
the  wheat ' ;  and  after  his  quotation,  I  think  more  than 
one  of  us  went  home  resolved  to  get  Tennyson's  ex- 
quisite song  by  heart.  A  story  from  the  '  Idylls  of  the 
King,'  and  soon  Arthur  and  his  Table  Round  becomes 
one  of  our  household  plays. 

"  Or  we  watch  his  face  quivering  with  enthusiasm  while 
we  listen  to  his  generous  eulogy  of  a  great  or  noble 
deed,  1  and  feel  how  awful  goodness  is  and  see  virtue  in 
her  shape  how  lovely.'  Again  we  catch  his  burning 
words  of  scorn  or  hatred  of  wrong  and  oppression,  mean- 
ness or  cruelty,  and  we  too  learn  to  hate  what  is  base. 

"  My  father  rarely  spoke  directly  on  religious  matters 
in  the  family  circle,  but  we  instinctively  knew  that  he 
lived  for  God  and  His  service.  He  showed  us  the  beauty 
of  religion  in  his  life. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  fastidious  refinement  and  delicacy 


1 84  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


of  feeling,  reserved  almost  to  pride,  austere,  even  stern, 
at  times.  Coupled  with  this,  however,  were  great  ten- 
derness and  much  quiet  humour.  He  could  not  bear  to 
see  his  children  in  pain  or  grief  —  he  loved  to  give  them 
pleasure ;  and  though  he  seldom  caressed  us,  we  never 
doubted  his  warm  family  affection.  Which  of  us,  for 
example,  can  forget  the  long  illness  and  temporary 
blindness  of  a  tiny  brother,  and  our  father's  solicitude 
then  ? 

"  As  to  humour,  he  appreciated  it  fully  in  others  if  not 
witty  himself.  1 1  am  tired,  talk  to  me  and  amuse  me,' 
he  would  say  to  his  children,  or  to  boys  at  the  sixth- 
form  dining-table,  and  would  then  lean  back  in  his 
chair,  enjoying  their  chatter,  after  a  time  perhaps  rous- 
ing himself  to  join  in  as  eagerly  as  they.  Many  a  time 
did  his  hearty,  infectious  laughter  break  out  in  recount- 
ing some  tale,  or  his  eye  light  up  with  quiet  glee  in 
exchanging  repartees  with  friends.  Little  oft-repeated 
family  jokes  inspired  by  him  have  now  been  invested 
with  almost  sacred  remembrance,  too  dear  for  repetition 
in  these  pages.  His  playful  tilts  at  ignorance  or  awk- 
wardness may  be  mentioned  as  instancing  his  power 
of  dealing  with  the  young  —  satire  without  a  sting,  be- 
cause of  the  genial  smile  and  kindly  inflection  that 
accompanied  them.  '  Grotesque  idiot,'. — '  Antedilu- 
vian megatherium,'  — '  Have  you  ever  heard  of  an 
obscure  person  named  William  Shakespeare,'  are  among 
these.  We  think  of  them  now  with  that  laughter  which 
is  akin  to  tears. 

"  Love  of  the  beautiful  was  strongly  marked  in  my 
father.  The  wide  stretches  of  green  down,  with  the 
strong,  sweet  air  fanning  his  bare  brow ;  the  stately 
beech  avenue,  and  sunflecked  glades  of  forest  bracken ; 
the  '  hosts  of  golden  daffodils ' ;  the  fragrant  carpets 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  185 


of  bluebells ;  the  banks  of  pale,  tender  primroses ; 
the  patches  of  frail,  rose-stained  anemones  in  the 
copses,  —  all  these  were  positive  joy  to  him.  His  face 
would  light  up  with  rare  pleasure,  as  he  gazed  over  the 
rolling  foam,  or  marked  the  quiet  splash  of  the  rippling 
tide,  and  drank  in  large  draughts  of  sea-breezes  while 
pacing  up  and  down  the  smooth,  yellow  sands.  The 
spirit  of  Heber's  lines  seemed  ever  in  his  thoughts. 

"  O  God,  O  good  beyond  compare, 
If  thus  Thy  meaner  works  are  fair,  .  .  . 
How  glorious  must  the  mansions  be, 
Where  Thy  redeemed  shall  dwell  with  Thee. 

I  quoted  these  lines  to  him  not  long  before  his  death, 
and  he  seemed  to  listen  with  pleasure.  Beauty  in  art, 
too,  was  a  source  of  great  delight,  —  a  delight  which  he 
tried  to  transmit  to  others.  He  used  to  say  that  good 
art  was  an  important  factor  in  education,  and  he  carried 
out  his  theory  by  covering  the  walls  of  every  room  in  the 
house  with  pictures  suggestive  of  the  sacred  and  lovely, 
either  copies  or  originals.  His  explanations  of  pictures 
and  the  graphic  way  in  which  he  would  point  out  their 
beauties  were  lessons  in  themselves.  He  could  never  see 
a  treasure  in  art,  beautiful  either  from  rich  colour  or  grace- 
ful form,  whether  picture,  vase,  or  figure,  without  wish- 
ing to  possess  himself  of  it.  This  was  his  one  form  of 
self-indulgence,  and  it  was  a  happy  one,  for  our  home 
became,  in  time,  a  museum  of  lovely  objects. 

"  It  was  a  dear  home,  that  in  Marlborough,  and  our 
thoughts  must  often  revert  to  it  with  fond  regret.  We 
remember  the  large,  sunny  garden,  with  its  terraces 
ending  in  the  field,  its  clump  of  shady  trees,  and  the 
river  below.  But  I  can  best  describe  it  in  his  own 
words :  — 


1 86  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  '  The  river  valley  with  its  towers  and  trees ;  the 
forest  with  its  mossy  glades  and  primroses  and  waving 
boughs ;  the  west  woods  with  their  wild  anemones  and 
daffodils ;  the  free,  fresh  downs  with  the  winds  of  heaven 
that  breathe  health  over  them  ;  the  natural  amphitheatre 
of  Martinsell,  and  the  glorious  expanse  on  which  I  had 
gazed  so  often  from  its  green  and  breezy  summit ;  and 
more  than  these,  the  nearer  scenes  so  bright  with  their 
thousand  imperishable  memories ;  the  terrace,  the  mound, 
the  cricket  field,  the  wilderness,  the  roofs  of  the  old 
house  rising  over  the  clipped  yews  and  between  the 
groups  of  noble  limes.  And  often,  as  on  these  gorgeous 
summer  evenings,  the  sunsets  have  rolled  over  us  in 
their  countless  waves  of  crimson  fire,  I  have  sat  in  my 
own  garden  amid  the  woodland  sights  and  sounds  —  the 
peace,  the  coolness,  and  the  song  of  birds,  the  quiet 
lapse  of  the  river  heard  in  the  stillness,  the  air  full  of 
the  odours  of  rose  and  jasmine,  and  then  heard  the 
chapel  bell  breaking  the  stillness,  and  passed  through 
the  court  with  its  groups  of  happy  boys,  and  so  into  the 
beautiful  reverence  of  this  dear  House  of  God  —  I  have 
thought  that  not  often  has  our  Heavenly  Father  given 
better  elements  of  happiness  to  you  and  to  me.' 

"  My  father  sympathised  in  our  love  of  pets.  There 
was  the  innocent-faced  donkey,  '  Blacknose,'  who  every 
day  might  be  seen  plodding  steadily  along  the  lanes 
with  the  scarlet-capped  babies  in  panniers  on  each  side, 
and  a  vigorous  little  fellow  astride  his  back.  There 
were  the  white  pigeons  with  rosy  feet  who  came  to  our 
nursery  windows  to  feed  from  our  hands,  —  the  sea-gulls 
brought  from  Swanage  Bay,  the  numerous  families  of 
rabbits  and  the  tame  fawn  that  ran  races  with  us  on  the 
terrace  and  which  we  fed  with  milk  from  a  bottle.  Mar- 
tins built  in  the  shady  schoolroom  porch,  and  he  with 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  187 


us  loved  to  watch  the  tiny  mother  darting  in  and  out  to 
feed  her  nestlings  and  see  the  fledglings  perched  on  the 
ledge  ready  for  their  first  flight. 

"Opposite  our  house  was  the  sick  house,  where  my 
mother  daily  cheered  the  invalids  with  her  sweet  face 
and  words.  Convalescent  boys  would  be  given  the  run 
of  our  garden,  and  were  taken  for  drives  by  my  father 
himself — he  as  often  as  not  perched  on  the  box,  cor- 
recting papers,  with  his  guest  on  the  carriage  seat. 
We  have  spoken  elsewhere  of  his  love  for  boys,  and  I 
can  only  recall  here  the  way  he  would  pace  up  and 
down  his  garden,  with  his  arm  on  a  boy's  shoulder,  or 
sit  with  him  on  the  lawn  correcting  his  '  prose.'  Per- 
haps the  happiest  times  in  our  young  lives  were  when 
starting  out  in  brakes  and  carriages,  crowded  with  happy 
boys,  to  picnics  to  Martinsell  or  the  forest,  and  on  these 
occasions  my  father  was  not  the  least  happy  of  the 
party. 

"  We  left  Marlborough  with  singular  regret,  and  to  my 
father  the  pang  of  leaving  his  beloved  school  and  peace- 
ful country  scenes  for  the  squalor  of  London  life  was 
never  quite  got  over.  I  remember  the  melancholy 
journey  to  London  and  how  one  of  the  party  was  unable 
to  restrain  her  tears  at  the  last  glimpse  of  well-known 
landmarks.  My  father,  putting  aside  his  own  regret, 
said  tenderly,  '  Never  mind  —  you  will  come  back  to 
Marlborough  one  day.'  It  was  a  curious  coincidence 
that  the  child  to  whom  he  spoke  was  the  only  one  who 
did  come  back  to  make  a  new  home  in  Marlborough. 

"Our  life  in  Westminster  was  very  different  and  we 
greatly  missed  our  freedom  and  country  pleasures ;  my 
father  never  could  get  reconciled  to  the  comparatively 
noisy  and  sordid  surroundings  of  our  new  home.  Also 
the  gloom,  grime,  and  hideous  eighteenth  century  deco- 


188  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


rations  of  St.  Margaret's  church  filled  him  with  pain. 
He  used  with  pathetic  humour  to  groan  over  the  big  iron 
stove  in  the  south  aisle  where  a  certain  disreputable- 
looking  man  took  his  seat  on  Sunday  evenings ;  the 
fat  and  frowsy  pew-opener ;  the  false  apse,  painted  blue 
with  yellow  stars ;  the  huge  galleries  '  like  the  reced- 
ing forehead  of  a  gorilla,'  as  he  used  to  say.  But  he 
bravely  and  cheerfully  made  the  best  of  it.  The  church 
after  stupendous  efforts  was  restored  and  beautified. 
The  graceful  arches  and  historical  interest  of  West- 
minster Abbey  partly  made  up  for  his  lost  country 
duties.  St.  James's  Park,  where  he  would  take  us  to 
feed  the  water-fowls,  was  a  pleasure,  also  the  old  college 
garden  in  which  we  children  spent  the  summer  evenings 
in  merry  games. 

"  What  helped  most  to  cheer  and  brighten  my  father 
in  those  early  Westminster  years  was  the  society  of 
'  The  Curates,'  who,  young,  ardent,  bright,  and  intel- 
lectual, gave  an  atmosphere  of  cheerful  vigour  to  the 
house,  and  lightened  many  an  hour  of  anxiety  and  de- 
pression. Chief  among  those  he  reckoned  the  two  who 
afterward  became  members  of  our  family  and  of  whom 
it  is  not  necessary  to  speak  here ;  but  I  cannot  pass 
over  the  Sunday  evenings  when  parents,  children,  and 
curates  gathered  in  a  circle  after  supper,  when  talk  — 
literary,  witty,  or  serious  —  went  on,  led  by  my  father, 
who  on  these  occasions  seemed  to  open  the  treasures 
of  his  learning  and  experience  for  our  benefit.  When 
it  grew  late  he  would  rise  with  the  stereotyped  joke, 
'  Your  mother  wants  to  go  to  bed,'  and  so  disperse 
the  reluctant  company. 

"  The  restrictions  of  London  life  were  broken  annually 
by  our  visits  to  the  seaside,  holidays  looked  forward  to 
by  my  father  with  as  much  eagerness  as  by  his  children. 


HEAD-MASTER  OF  MARLBOROUGH  189 


Even  at  the  seaside  he  allowed  himself  no  real  holiday, 
for,  with  the  exception  of  two  daily  walks,  he  sat  at  his 
books  from  morning  till  night,  content  if  from  his  open 
window  he  could  catch  the  breeze  and  see  the  blue 
expanse  of  ocean.  Here  his  marvellous  powers  of  con- 
centration came  in.  As  a  rule  we  had  only  one  sitting 
room,  beside  that  appropriated  to  the  babies,  so  that  he 
was  seldom  alone.  Yet  he  did  his  writing  all  day  at 
the  window  table,  not  only  undisturbed  by  games,  read- 
ing aloud,  or  chatter,  but  ever  ready  to  turn  round  with 
an  observation  on  the  subject  of  discussion.  I  may  safely 
say  that  never  do  I  remember  his  showing  irritation  at 
having  to  write  under  circumstances  that  would  deprive 
most  authors  of  power  to  compose.  Rather  do  I  think 
that  his  work  was  aided  and  not  hindered  by  the  atmos- 
phere of  simple,  domestic  joys  which  surrounded  him 
in  our  holidays.  One  or  more  of  us  were  his  compan- 
ions in  his  daily  walk,  —  walks  when  he  would  repeat 
and  make  us  repeat  poetry.  Then,  too,  he  would  search 
with  us  for  wild  flowers  and  talk  of  their  properties  or 
peculiarities. 

"Others  have  written  of  his  parish  work  in  London, 
so  I  will  only  speak  here  of  the  large  circle  of  friends, 
men  or  women  of  fame  and  power  who  added  greatly 
to  the  interest  of  our  lives.  Such  names  as  Tenny- 
son, Browning,  Matthew  Arnold,  Millais,  Frith,  Hol- 
man  Hunt,  Jean  Ingelow,  Tom  Hughes,  and  perhaps 
first  in  friendship  among  ecclesiastics,  the  beloved  Dean 
Stanley,  are  typical  of  the  society  in  which  my  father 
delighted. 

"  Above  all,  we  had  the  happiness  of  living  for  many 
years,  with  few  separations,  since  the  school  or  profes- 
sion of  most  of  us  lay  at  one  time  in  London,  and  the 
only  thing  which  troubled  my  father's  pleasure  in  having 


igo  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


his  children  round  him  was  his  anxiety  to  see  them 
all  well  started  in  life,  ambition  for  them  being  among 
his  few  weaknesses  —  if  weakness  it  may  be  called. 

"  Of  the  large  family  party  who  lived  in  those  happy 
homes  of  Marlborough  and  Westminster,  — 

"  All.  are  scattered  now  and  fled, 
Some  are  married,  some  are  dead, 

And  he  who  was  to  them  as  father,  priest,  and  friend 
sleeps  under  the  gray  cathedral  wall  of  his  last  home." 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  LIFE  OF  CHRIST  AND  OTHER  THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS 

In  1874  was  published  the  "Life  of  Christ,"  the 
magnum  opus  by  which  my  father's  name  is  best  known 
to  the  world.  The  Preface  is  dated  from  The  Lodge, 
Marlborough  College,  Monday  before  Easter,  1874. 

The  work  was  undertaken  at  the  request  of  the 
publishers,  who  "  wished  to  place  in  the  hands  of  their 
readers  such  a  sketch  of  the  Life  of  Christ  on  earth 
as  should  enable  them  to  realise  it  more  clearly  and 
to  enter  more  thoroughly  into  the  details  and  sequence 
of  the  Gospel  narratives." 

It  would  be  foreign  to  my  purpose,  even  were  I  com- 
petent to  the  task,  to  attempt  a  detailed  appreciation 
of  the  book,  which  will,  besides,  be  more  or  less  familiar 
to  any  who  are  sufficiently  interested  in  my  father  to 
read  his  Life,  but  a  work  so  important  demands  some- 
thing more  than  a  passing  notice. 

The  author  says  in  his  Preface :  "  After  I  had  in 
some  small  measure  prepared  myself  for  the  task,  I 
seized,  in  the  year  1870,  the  earliest  possible  oppor- 
tunity to  visit  Palestine,  and  especially  those  parts  of  it 
which  will  be  for  ever  identified  with  the  work  of  Christ 
on  Earth.  Amid  those  scenes  wherein  He  moved  — 
in  the 

"  Holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  nailed, 
For  our  advantage,  on  the  bitter  cross  — 
191 


192  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


in  the  midst  of  those  immemorial  customs  which  re- 
called at  every  turn  the  manner  of  life  He  lived,  at 
Jerusalem,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  at  Bethlehem,  by 
Jacob's  Well,  in  the  Valley  of  Nazareth,  along  the 
bright  strand  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  in  the  coasts 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon  —  many  things  came  home  to  me 
for  the  first  time,  with  a  reality  and  vividness  unknown 
before.  I  returned  more  than  ever  confirmed  in  the 
wish  to  tell  the  full  story  of  the  Gospels  in  such  a 
manner  and  with  such  illustrations  as  —  with  the  aid 
of  all  that  was  within  my  reach  of  that  knowledge 
which  has  been  accumulating  for  centuries  —  might 
serve  to  enable  at  least  the  simple  and  the  unlearned 
to  understand  and  enter  into  the  human  surroundings 
of  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God."  .  .  . 

"  If,"  he  continues,  "the  following  pages  in  any  meas- 
ure fulfil  the  object  with  which  such  a  Life  ought  to 
be  written,  they  should  fill  the  minds  of  those  who  read 
them  with  solemn  and  not  ignoble  thoughts ;  they  should 
1  add  sunlight  to  daylight  by  making  the  happy  happier ' ; 
they  should  encourage  the  toiler ;  they  should  console 
the  sorrowful ;  they  should  point  the  weak  to  the  one 
true  source  of  moral  strength.  But  whether  the  book 
be  thus  blest  to  high  ends,  or  whether  it  be  received 
with  harshness  and  indifference,  nothing  at  least  can 
rob  me  of  the  deep  and  constant  happiness  which  I 
have  felt  during  almost  every  hour  that  has  been  spent 
upon  it." 

This  journey  was  undertaken  in  company  with  his 
friends  Walter  Leaf,  a  beloved  Harrow  pupil,  and  the 
late  William  Ingelow,  the  witty  and  genial  brother  of 
the  poetess.  Readers  of  the  book  will  appreciate  how 
much  it  has  gained  from  the  knowledge  of  local  colour 
which  the  author  was  thus  enabled  to  acquire. 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  193 


The  Hulsean  Lectures  of  1870  on  "The  Witness  of 
History  to  Christ,"  had  to  some  extent  prepared  and 
qualified  him  for  the  work,  but  can  only  be  regarded 
as  preliminary  studies. 

The  "  Life  of  Christ "  is  generally  spoken  of,  and 
often  by  ignorant  critics  with  a  sneer,  as  "  popular,"  and 
popular  it  certainly  is  in  the  sense  that  it  is  avowedly 
written  in  the  service  of  the  simple  and  the  unlearned, 
popular  too  in  the  sense  that  it  is  understood  of  the 
people,  and  has  brought  the  Light  of  the  Gospel  to 
thousands  to  whom  the  books  of  theologians  accounted 
more  learned  and  profound  are  sealed.  But  if  "  popu- 
lar "  be  held  to  connote  "  superficial,"  no  epithet  could 
be  more  misapplied.  Whatever  defects  the  Life  of 
Christ  may  be  thought  to  have,  and  it  has  been  freely 
criticised,  that  it  is  a  monument  of  learning  and  re- 
search can  only  be  denied  by  those  who  have  never  read 
the  book.  The  list  of  authorities,  giving  the  catalogue 
of  books  and  editions  frequently  referred  to  in  the  Life, 
is  alone  sufficient  to  vindicate  the  deep  learning  of  the 
author,  and  on  almost  every  page  will  be  found  evi- 
dence of  the  minute  and  laborious  pains  he  took  to 
illustrate  and  elucidate  every  incident,  and  even  every 
phrase  of  the  Gospel  Narratives. 

In  judging  Farrar's  work,  and  this  is  true  not  only  of 
the  "  Life  of  Christ,"  but  of  all  his  books,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  there  are  two  orders  of  scholars,  the 
"intensive"  and  the  "extensive"  school,  both  necessary 
to  the  world  —  those  whose  function  is  original  re- 
search, and  those  whose  function  it  is  to  interpret  and 
make  available  the  labours  of  the  former  class,  whose 
work  would  otherwise  remain  buried  under  its  own 
weight.  And  it  was  to  this  latter  class  that  my  father 
unquestionably  belonged.    He  laboured  in  the  fields  of 


194  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Philology,  Theology,  and  History ;  but,  wide  as  was  his 
learning,  it  cannot  be  claimed  for  him  that  either  as 
a  philologist,  as  a  theologian,  or  as  a  historian  he  un- 
earthed new  treasures  of  knowledge  —  by  original  re- 
search. But  it  is  true  of  him,  as  has  been  said,  that 
"as  a  writer  he  came  into  the  market-place  with  the 
treasures  of  Biblical  and  historical  learning  and  put 
them  at  the  service  of  the  simple " ;  and  not  of  the 
simple  only,  for  though  some  few  may  have  been  his 
masters  in  depth,  very  few  were  his  equals  in  width  of 
learning,  and  even  of  professed  English  theologians 
there  are  but  few,  from  Lightfoot  downwards,  who 
would  not  gratefully  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to 
Farrar.  Indeed  my  father  had  no  warmer  admirers 
than  those  great  theologians  Lightfoot  and  Westcott, 
with  whom  he  is  sometimes  invidiously  contrasted. 
For  instance,  though  a  Hebrew  scholar,  he  was  not  a 
profound  Hebraist ;  but  he  was  the  first  great  literary 
churchman  of  his  day  to  appreciate  and  make  effective 
use  of  the  body  of  Talmudic  learning  made  available 
by  German  scholars. 

In  regard  to  the  style  in  which  the  "  Life  of  Christ " 
is  written,  the  terms  "florid"  and  "exuberant"  have 
been  reiterated  ad  nauseam  by  every  journalist,  and  it 
is  true,  as  has  been  expressed  by  one  of  the  kindliest 
of  his  critics,  and  not  all  were  kindly,  that  "  in  matters 
of  composition  his  intellectual  method  was  of  the  Corin- 
thian rather  than  the  Ionic  or  Doric  order  " ;  but  the 
same  critic  goes  on  to  say,  "  If  the  faults  of  Dr.  Farrar's 
mental  temperament,  in  his  love  of  gorgeous  phrase  and 
encrusted  epithets,  are  to  be  plainly  discerned  in  these 
pages,  it  does  but  render  them  like  a  missal  which  has 
been  a  little  overgilded  and  painted,  the  book  itself 
being  a  noble  and  precious  product  of  English  theo- 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  195 

logical  learning,  and  an  enduring  witness  in  every  line 
to  the  piety,  the  lofty  faith,  and  the  conscientious  accu- 
racy of  the  author."  To  the  question  of  style  I  shall 
recur  in  connection  with  my  father  as  a  preacher. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  gigantic  task,  which 
would  have  been  a  notable  achievement  as  the  outcome 
of  years  of  lettered  leisure  devoted  to  no  other  object, 
was  with  my  father  a  Trape'pyov,  accomplished  in  the 
spare  hours  of  a  busy  schoolmaster's  life,  between  the 
years  1870  and  1874.  Engaged  often  in  teaching  and 
other  routine  magisterial  duties  from  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning  till  nine  o'clock  at  night,  with  many  letters 
to  write  and  frequent  sermons  to  prepare,  "  months," 
he  says,  "have  often  passed  without  my  finding  time  to 
write  a  single  line ;  yet,  even  in  the  midst  of  incessant 
labour  at  other  things,  nothing  forbade  that  the  subject 
on  which  I  was  engaged  should  be  often  in  my  thoughts, 
or  that  I  should  find  in  it  a  source  of  peace  and  happi- 
ness different  alike  in  kind  and  in  degree  from  any 
which  other  interests  could  either  give  or  take  away." 
But  leisure,  with  him,  meant  ever  change  of  occupation, 
not  smoking,  or  chatting,  or  a  game  of  whist ;  and  after 
a  hard  day's  work  in  school  his  steady  lamp  would  burn 
far  into  the  night ;  while  he  valued  his  holidays  chiefly 
for  the  privilege  they  gave  him  of  working  thirteen 
hours  a  day  at  his  beloved  book.  Which  of  his  chil- 
dren does  not  remember  the  ponderous  and  solidly 
constructed  "book-box,"  with  its  fifteen  cubic  feet  of 
formidable  tomes,  mostly  German  theology,  the  working- 
tools  of  my  father's  literary  craft,  which  accompanied 
the  family  to  the  seaside  on  every  successive  summer 
holiday  ? 

And  he  reaped  from  the  "  Life  of  Christ "  a  rich 
reward  in  'the  suffrages  of  the  simple  and  unlearned 


196  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


for  whom  the  book  was  written.  Though  financially 
the  profits  of  the  author  were  scanty  indeed  in  propor- 
tion to  the  commercial  success  of  the  book,  for  it  was 
not  published  upon  the  "royalty"  system  (and  indeed 
my  father  sometimes  felt  that  his  work  had  deserved 
more  generous  treatment  at  the  hands  of  his  publishers) ; 
the  demand  for  the  book  was  enormous.  Twelve  editions, 
at  the  rate  of  one  a  month,  were  exhausted  in  the  first 
year  of  its  publication.  Since  its  first  appearance  the 
work  has  gone  through  thirty  editions  in  England  alone, 
has  been  "  pirated  "  in  America,  and  has  been  translated 
into  almost  every  European  language,  including  two 
independent  translations  into  Russian,  and  even  into 
Japanese. 

But  more,  even,  than  the  evidence  of  success  derived 
from  sales,  the  author  valued  the  testimony  of  hundreds 
who,  year  by  year,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  con- 
tinued to  write  to  him,  acknowledging  their  deep  spiritual 
indebtedness  to  this  and  other  works  of  his.  The  joy  of 
feeling  that  he  had  been,  under  God,  the  humble  instru- 
ment of  turning  many  to  righteousness  was  a  reward 
which  no  bitterness  of  criticism  could  take  from  him. 

The  "  Life  of  Christ"  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  of 
a  trilogy,  dealing  with  the  foundations  of  the  Christian 
faith,  being  followed  in  1879  by  the  "  Life  of  St.  Paul  " 
(which  is  considered  by  many  judges  as  of  greater 
theological  value,  if  of  less  popular  interest,  than  the 
"Life  of  Christ"),  and  in  1882  by  the  "Early  Days 
of  Christianity." 

He  continued  to  make  further  studies  in  the  Life  of 
Christ,  publishing  in  1894  the  beautiful  "Life  of  Christ 
as  represented  in  Art";  and  finally,  in  1900,  from  the 
Deanery,  Canterbury,  his  last  important  work,  "  The 
Life  of  Lives,"  written  when  the  atrophy,  which  finally 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  197 


compelled  him  to  abandon  all  literary  work,  had  begun 
already  to  fasten  on  that  right  hand  which  had  toiled  so 
long  in  the  service  of  mankind.  The  "Life  of  Lives" 
is  dedicated 

Conjugi 
Dilectissimae  et  Fidelissima? 
Laborum,  Felicitatis,  Dolorum 
Per  XL  Annos  Participi 
Hunc  Librum 
D.D.D. 
Fredericus  Gulielmus  Farrar 
III  Non.  Apr.  MDCCCC 

In  his  Preface  the  author  sent  it  forth  "with  the 
humble  petition  offered,  '  with  bent  head  and  beseeching 
hand,'  that  He  who  deigned  to  bless  my  former  efforts, 
will  bless  this  effort  also,  to  the  furtherance  of  His  King- 
dom, and  the  good  of  His  Church." 

Had  this  beautiful  book,  so  full  of  pathetic  interest 
for  those  who  love  the  author,  been  confined  merely  to 
the  first  and  last  chapters,  in  which  he  employs  all  the 
resources  of  his  wide  knowledge  of  history  and  litera- 
ture, and  all  the  fervour  of  his  intense  conviction,  to 
bring  home  to  the  hearts  of  his  readers  the  compelling 
force  of  the  life,  teaching,  and  example  of  Christ  Jesus, 
it  would  have  been  a  profoundly  valuable  contribution 
to  the  cause  of  Christianity ;  and  comparing  the  "  Life 
of  Lives  "  with  the  earlier  "  Life  of  Christ "  we  recog- 
nise that  age,  without  dimming  the  learning  of  the 
divine,  had  brought  with  it  added  depth  of  spiritual 
insight. 

The  following  letter  from  Professor  Margoliouth,  the 
great  Hebrew  scholar,  illustrates  the  value  attached  by 
a  man  of  profound  learning  to  "  The  Life  and  Work  of 
St.  Paul "  :  — 


198  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"Little  Linford  Vicarage,  March  12,  1880. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  Utter  stranger  as  I  am  to  you,  yet  I  can- 
not resist  the  strong  desire  which  took  possession  of  my 
mind,  and  heart,  too,  to  write  a  few  lines  to  you. 

"  I  have  now  read  and  re-read,  attentively  and  criti- 
cally, your  great  opus,  '  The  Life  and  Work  cf  St.  Paul.' 
I  have  the  courage  of  my  conviction  to  pronounce  it  the 
greatest  useful  practical  work  that  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land has  produced  since  the  Reformation. 

"  The  two  volumes,  indeed,  contain  certain  opinions 
and  sentiments,  criticisms  and  exegeses,  quotations  and 
renderings  of  the  same  which  I  cannot  possibly  acquiesce 
in.  But  the  difference  in  our  respective  readings,  con- 
struings,  and  applications  of  some  passages  in  Hebrew, 
Greek,  Latin,  German,  etc.,  does  not  alter  my  matured 
judgment  of  the  importance  of  your  last  two  volumes 
to  the  Church  of  Christ. 

"  The  reason  for  my  presuming  to  write  all  this  to 
you  is  a  patriotic  one.  I  am  anxious  to  give  expression 
to  a  thought  which  haunted  me  whilst  I  read  and  re-read 
'The  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul.'  The  thought  was, 
and  is,  this  :  If  the  two  volumes  were  but  somewhat,  not 
too  much,  condensed  and  then  rendered  into  Hebrew, 
the  work  might  prove  the  most  effective  preparer  and 
maker-ready  of  the  way  for  turning  the  hearts  of  the 
disobedient  and  unbelieving  Jews  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
Just  One.  Far  more  so  than  the  numerous  tracts  pub- 
lished and  circulated  by  certain  missionary  associations. 

"  I  am,  dear  sir, 

"  Yours  faithfully, 

"M.  Margoliouth. 


"The  Rev.  Canon  Farrar,  D.D." 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  199 


Two  other  books,  "  Darkness  and  Dawn,"  a  tale  of 
Nero's  days,  and  "  Gathering  Clouds,"  a  tale  of  the  days 
of  Chrysostom,  dealing  with  the  period  of  degeneration 
which  set  in  with  the  fourth  century,  when  the  faith  lost 
its  first  ideals,  though  in  form  works  of  fiction,  treat  of 
the  history  of  the  Early  Church  and  may  be  regarded 
as  continuing  the  same  series  which  was  further  carried 
out  in  "  Lives  of  the  Fathers." 

The  works  forming  the  "Trilogy"  reveal  the  author's 
profound  and  intimate  knowledge  of  theological  scholar- 
ship ;  these  later  books  and  his  "  Lives  of  the  Fathers  " 
exhibit  a  knowledge  not  less  profound  and  intimate  of 
the  history  of  the  early  Christian  centuries.  In  "  Dark- 
ness and  Dawn  "  and  "  Gathering  Clouds  "  the  manner 
in  which  history  is  interwoven  with  fiction,  like  threads 
in  the  texture  of  "  shot "  silk,  affords  an  excellent  exam- 
ple of  the  method  in  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  so 
successful ;  indeed,  in  reading  them  we  are  irresistibly 
reminded  of  that  author.  We  are  equally  fascinated  by 
the  flowing  grace  of  the  style,  the  charm  and  interest 
of  the  narrative,  and  the  marvellous  historical  lessons 
which  it  conveys. 

I  may  give  some  idea  of  their  scope  by  a  citation  from 
the  preface  of  "Gathering  Clouds,"  which  is  dedicated: — 

Filiis  carissimis 
R.A.F.    E.M.F.    F.P.F.  I.G.F. 
Hanc  Corruptae  Quidem  Ecclesiae 
Fidei  Tamen  Incolumis  Adumbrationem 
D.D. 

Pater  Amantissimus 

"  In  'Darkness  and  Dawn'  I  endeavoured  to  illustrate 
in  the  form  of  a  story  an  epoch  of  surpassing  historical 
and  moral  interest,  —  the  struggle  in  the  first  century 


200 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


between  a  nascent  Christianity,  armed  only  with  the 
irresistible  might  of  weakness,  and  a  decadent  pagan- 
ism, supported  by  the  wit,  the  genius,  the  religion,  the 
philosophy,  the  imperial  power,  and  all  the  armies  of 
the  world.  I  showed  that  the  victory  of  Christianity 
was  won  by  virtue  of  the  purity  and  integrity  which  it 
inspired ;  and  that  nothing  was  able  to  resist  a  faith 
which  placed  the  attainment  of  the  ideal  of  holiness 
within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  of  mankind.  I  tried 
to  show  some  glimpse,  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  of  the 
frightful  spiritual  debasement  for  which  a  heathendom 
which  had  become  more  than  half  atheistical  was  re- 
sponsible ;  and  of  the  noble  character  which  Christianity 
developed  into  a  beauty  till  then  not  only  unattained, 
but  unimagined,  alike  in  the  high  and  in  the  low.  So 
far  as  the  historic  outline  was  concerned,  the  picture 
was  not  an  imaginative  landscape  but  an  absolute  photo- 
graph. Every  circumstance,  every  particular,  even  of 
costume  and  custom,  was  derived  directly  from  the 
history,  poetry,  satires,  and  romances  of  classic  writers, 
or  from  the  literature  and  remains  of  the  early  days 
of  Christianity.  If  I  had  not  followed  this  method 
I  should  not  have  been  faithful  to  the  main  object 
which  I  set  before  me. 

"  In  '  Darkness  and  Dawn '  I  showed  the  influences 
which  enabled  the  Church  to  triumph  over  the  world : 
it  is  now  my  far  sadder  task  to  show  how  the  world  re- 
invaded,  and  partly  even  triumphed  over,  the  nominal 
Church.  I  there  showed  how  the  Darkness  had  been 
scattered  by  the  Dawn  :  I  have  here  to  picture  how  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  which  had  risen  with  healing  in 
his  wings,  was  overshadowed  by  many  ominous  and 
lurid  clouds.     1  Of  the  Byzantine  Empire,'  says  Mr. 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  201 


Lecky,  '  the  universal  verdict  of  history  is  that  it  con- 
stitutes, without  a  single  exception,  the  most  thoroughly 
base  and  despicable  form  that  civilization  has  yet 
assumed  .  .  .  the  Byzantine  Empire  was  preeminently 
the  age  of  treachery  .  .  .  the  Asiatic  Churches  had 
already  perished.  The  Christian  faith,  planted  in  the 
dissolute  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  had  produced  many 
fanatical  ascetics  and  a  few  illustrious  theologians,  but 
it  had  no  renovating  effect  upon  the  people  at  large.  It 
introduced  among  them  a  principle  of  interminable  and 
implacable  dissensions,  but  it  scarcely  tempered  in  any 
appreciable  degree  their  luxury  or  their  sensuality.' 

"The  apparent  triumph  of  Christianity  was  in  some 
sense  and  for  a  time  its  real  defeat,  the  corruption  of  its 
simplicity,  the  defacement  of  its  purest  and  loftiest 
beauty. 

"  Yet,  however  much  the  Divine  ideal  might  be 
obscured,  it  was  never  wholly  lost.  The  Sun  was  often 
clouded;  but  behind  that  veil  of  earthly  mists,  on  the 
days  which  seemed  most  dark,  it  was  there  always, 
naming  in  the  zenith,  and  it  could  make  the  darkest 
clouds  palpitate  with  light.  No  age  since  Christ  died 
was  so  utterly  corrupt  as  not  to  produce  some  prophets 
and  saints  of  God.  These  saints,  these  prophets,  in  age 
after  age,  were  persecuted,  were  sawn  asunder,  were 
slain  with  the  sword  by  kings  and  priests ;  but  the  next 
generation,  which  built  their  sepulchres,  had,  in  part  at 
least,  profited  by  their  lessons. 

"'The  Church,'  said  St.  Chrysostom,  'cannot  be 
shaken.  The  more  the  world  takes  counsel  against  it, 
the  more  it  increases;  the  waves  are  dissipated,  the 
rock  remains  immovable.' 

"  In  reading  this  story,  then,  the  reader  will  be  pre- 
sented with  an  historic  picture  in  which  fiction  has  been 


202  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


allowed  free  play  as  regards  matters  which  do  not  affect 
the  important  facts,  but  of  which  every  circumstance 
bearing  on  my  main  design  is  rigidly  accurate,  or,  at  any 
rate,  is  derived  from  the  authentic  testimony  of  con- 
temporary Pagans  and  of  the  Saints  and  Fathers  of  the 
Church  of  God." 

From  many  hundreds,  the  majority  of  which  I  have 
not  had  time  even  to  glance  at,  I  have  selected  a  few  of 
the  letters  which  my  father  constantly  received,  and 
which  my  mother's  loving  devotion  preserved,  thanking 
him  for  the  "  Life  of  Christ "  and  other  books  and 
sermons.  I  have  tried  to  avoid  overloading  this  memoir 
with  eulogistic  letters,  a  plethora  of  which  would  have  a 
fulsome  effect ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  give  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  results  of  my  father's  teaching  with- 
out introducing  at  least  a  few  typical  letters  testifying 
to  its  quickening  and  ennobling  influence  on  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  men. 

"  August  20,  1874. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  Just  before  I  left  London  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  receiving  your  book  from  yourself,  and 
it  is  furnishing  both  Mrs.  Vaughan  and  me  a  profit- 
able and  interesting  study  during  our  season  of  rest. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  marvellous  proof  of  your  industry  and 
power  of  abstraction,  that  you  should  have  been  able  to 
create  such  a  work  in  the  horee  subsecivce  of  such  a  labo- 
rious life  as  yours.  Its  success  seems  to  be  an  accom- 
plished fact  within  the  first  few  weeks  (I  had  almost 
said  days),  of  its  publication.  May  you  receive  on  all 
sides  the  thanks  and  the  applauses  which  you  have 
so  richly  earned.  Active  and  useful  as  your  life  has 
been  hitherto  —  and  never  more  so  than  in  your  present 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  203 


great  sphere  —  I  do  not  wish  that  education  (in  the 
narrower  sense  of  that  word)  should  engross  the  whole 
of  it.  I  look  forward  to  seeing  you  compelled,  ere  long, 
to  give  your  mature  and  disciplined  powers  to  the  more 
direct  (though  not  perhaps  the  more  real)  service  of  the 
Church  in  her  highest  ministries. 

"  I  have  never  thanked  you  as  I  ought  and  would,  for 
your  wonderful  kindness  to  me  in  my  illness.  I  never 
knew  till  then  the  soothing  capacity  of  a  telegram. 

"  Ever  your  affectionate  old  friend, 

"  C.  T.  Vaughan." 


"July  2nd,  1874. 

"My  dear  Farrar  :  Hades  confitentem  !  I  long  to 
make  a  clean  breast  to  you  on  the  subject  of  that 
promised  review  of  your  great  book,  which  must  have 
appeared  so  inexplicably  deferred.  For  the  first  week 
after  I  laid  it  on  my  desk  I  was  severely  indisposed ; 
then  I  took  it  up  and  perused  it  from  beginning  to  end 
with  the  truest  admiration  for  a  work  of  such  far-reach- 
ing scholarship,  noble  inspiration  and  unfailing  grace  in 
treatment.  But  I  felt  that  /  could  not  and  must  not 
write  the  review.  From  its  honourable  initial  motto  manet 
immota  fides  to  its  eloquent  close  I  must  have  arraigned 
it  for  the  philosophical  fault  of  draping  upon  that  noble 
and  sacred  central  figure  the  ideas  and  the  morals, 
the  discoveries  and  developments  which  are  not  neces- 
sarily propter  Christum  because  post  Christum.  Why 
not  arraign  it !  you  will  say  ;  and  certainly  in  any  indict- 
ment of  a  book  and  such  an  author  there  would  have 
been  little,  probably,  to  touch  our  friendship,  but  the 
book  appeared  to  me  too  precious  as  an  educator  to  be 


204  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


made  a  theme  for  polemics  ;  it  appeared  so  good  and 
useful,  so  high  and  '  sweet '  a  presentation  of  Chris- 
tianity as  you  see  it  (as  I  wish  I  could  see  it)  that  I 
decided  to  give  it  over  to  a  hand  more  skilful,  very 
likely,  and  certainly  more  orthodox. 

"This  gentleman  has  accomplished  his  easier  task,  and 
I  shall  shortly  print  the  notice.  But  you  will  say  there 
are  two  sins  confessed  —  a  promise  to  you  deferred, 
and  a  duty  to  the  public  put  by.  I  can  only  say  that 
if  I  am  to  state  my  reasons  for  believing  that  Chris- 
tianity must  disappear  as  all  faiths  —  qua  faiths  —  have 
disappeared  and  are  disappearing,  it  must  be  against 
some  champion  whose  lofty  and  noble  purpose  does  not 
constantly  disarm  my  convictions.  It  would  take  a  long 
conversation  to  justify  this  feeling  and  to  tell  you  how 
thoroughly  I  share  your  faith  in  the  divine  humanity  of 
Christ  —  while  I  look  for  many  and  many  Christs  to 
be.  Suffice  it  if  you  believe  my  sincerity  and  take  on 
trust  the  things  I  cannot  now  write.  I  shall  preface  the 
notice  with  a  mention  of  the  book's  great  popularity. 

"  If  I  should  ask  you  shortly  to  let  Julian  come  home 
a  week  before  the  statutable  time,  would  that  be  per- 
missible ?  The  reason  is,  we  are  going  for  two  months 
to  Norway  with  the  two  elder  lads,  and  it  is  of  great 
importance  to  start  early  to  enjoy  the  long,  sub-arctic 
daylight ;  thus  a  week's  grace  would  make  a  valuable 
difference  in  our  plans.  With  best  regards  from  us 
both  to  Mrs.  Farrar, 

"  I  am  most  sincerely  yours, 

"Edwin  Arnold." 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  205 


"Sept.  h,  1874. 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Farrar  :  Why  do  you  allow  the 
critics  to  wound  you  so  deeply.  They  are,  after  all,  but 
heartless  units,  whereas  there  are  at  this  moment  so 
many  thousands  with  hearts  who  are  thanking  you  for 
your  interpretation  and  explanation  of  the  '  Precious 
Life,'  which  will  thereby  be  rendered  infinitely  more 
precious  to  their  souls.  In  a  letter  this  morning  my 
friend  Mr.  Coleridge  ends  his  few  favourable  lines  on 
the  subject  thus :  '  In  such  an  age  as  this,  I  thank  God 
for  such  a  book  on  such  a  subject.'  The  sympathy  of 
many  loving  hearts  and  a  conscience  that  you  have  been 
the  means  of  doing  much  good  should  at  any  rate  be 
elements  in  mitigating  the  force  of  the  remarks  of  the 
few  adverse  critics.  Pardon  my  having  written  thus, 
but  we  are  feeling  deeply  for  your  vexation. 

"  With  affectionate  remembrances  from  us  both  to 
Mrs.  Farrar  and  yourself, 

"  Believe  me,  my  dear  Dr.  Farrar, 

"  Most  sincerely  yours, 

"Charles  J.  Leaf." 

"Florence,  Oct.  20th,  1877. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir  :  I  venture  to  trouble  you 
with  a  note  to  thank  you  for  the  precious  delight  I  have 
enjoyed  in  reading  your  truly  wonderful  '  Life  of  Jesus.' 
No  other  book,  except  my  Bible,  has  ever  been,  or  I 
think  ever  can  be,  what  yours  has  been.  Therefore, 
though  a  stranger  and  unknown  to  you,  I  trust  you  will 
pardon  the  liberty  I  have  taken.  But  I  have  another 
cause  for  gratitude.    A  few  months  ago  it  pleased  the 


206  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Lord  to  take  from  our  home  a  sweet  little  boy  of  five 
years.  He  was  taken  from  us  suddenly,  and  one  of  the 
comforts  we  had  given  to  us  in  his  removal  was  the 
interest  he  took  in  your  '  Life.'  It  happened  in  this 
way.  In  the  evening  his  mother  read  a  portion  of  it, 
and  next  morning  after  I  left  home  to  attend  to  my  pro- 
fessional duties  she  took  our  little  darling  to  her  own 
room  and  reread  to  him  in  child's  language  the  portion 
of  the  previous  evening.  It  awakened  in  his  young  mind 
a  remarkable  interest  for  one  so  young,  and  questions 
like  these  were  put  by  him  to  his  mother :  '  Then  was 
Jesus  once  a  little  boy  like  me?'  '  Did  Jesus  play  with 
marbles  as  I  do  ? '  1  Was  Jesus  a  real  Falegname  '  (car- 
penter) ?  '  Why  were  the  Jews  so  unkind  to  Jesus  ? ' 
One  day  during  his  reading  he  suddenly  said,  '  Mamma, 
Signor  Vitta  will  not  go  to  Heaven.'  '  Why  ? '  was  his 
mother's  answer.  '  Not  unless  he  changes  and  believes 
on  Jesus,  because  it  was  his  people  who  killed  Jesus.' 
Signor  Vitta  is  a  Jeiv  ! 

"  Frequently  when  the  day  was  wet  and  he  was  kept 
with  his  nurse  indoors  he  would  come  to  his  mother  and 
say,  '  Mamma,  read  a  little  out  of  the  big  brown  book  ! ' 
—  meaning  your  '  Life.'  It  seemed  to  touch  his  heart, 
and  we  never  saw  him  so  interested  in  any  narrative  as 
in  the  parts  of  the  book  relating  to  the  early  life  of  our 
Lord.  We  desire  to  thank  you  most  heartily  for  all  the 
comfort  and  joy  we  have  derived  from  your  labour,  and 
to  express  the  wish  that  He  whose  blessed  life  you  have 
so  touchingly  narrated  will  abundantly  bless  you  and 
yours. 

"  Now  a  word  about  myself.  I  am  one  of  the  English 
physicians  in  practice  here,  and  beg  to  offer  you  a  warm 
invitation  to  occupy  our  '  Prophet's  Chamber '  should 
you  ever  come  to  Florence  for  a  whole  day.    It  will 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  207 


give  my  wife  and  myself  sincere  pleasure  to  welcome 
you  to  our  home. 

"  I  am, 

"  Reverend  and  dear  sir, 

"  Yours  very  faithfully, 

"A.  B." 

"i6/n/'77. 

"  In  an  illness  which  confined  the  writer  to  his  bed- 
room during  the  early  months  of  this  year,  his  trained 
nurse  read  aloud  to  him  Canon  Farrar's  two  volumes  of 
the  '  Life  of  Our  Lord,'  which  he  had  previously  read 
with  so  much  satisfaction.  In  the  hours  of  nightly 
wakefulness  and  suffering,  he  was  often  comforted  and 
refreshed  by  Canon  Farrar's  careful  and  conscientious 
setting  of  the  precious  jewels,  the  words  and  acts,  as 
the  '  Urim  and  Thummin,'  of  the  High  Priest  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  the  Lord  of  Glory. 

«<    >> 


"Stockholm,  Sept.  17,  1883. 

"  My  dear  Archdeacon  :  I  have  found  your  name  so 
lovingly  spoken  of  by  Swedes  and  Norsemen  in  my  re- 
cent tour,  that  I  feel  it  only  kind  to  write  to  tell  you  of  it. 

"  When  I  was  at  Lund,  two  years  ago,  one  of  the 
students  (a  philosophy-faculty  student),  whom  I  casually 
joined  in  looking  over  the  Museum,  told  me  (in  poor 
German)  that  he  had  read  your  '  Life  of  Christ '  in 
Swedish,  and,  not  to  name  several  others  (natives)  who 
have  spoken  of  you  in  my  present  town,  I  was  particu- 
larly struck  to-day  in  the  fact  that  the  commander  (an 
artillery  captain)  of  an  obscure  fortress  about  twenty- 


208 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


five  miles  east  of  Stockholm  told  me  that  he  had  read 
your  '  Life  of  Christ,'  and  that  several  other  works  of 
yours,  which  he  did  not  seem  to  know,  were  also  trans- 
lated into  Swedish,  and  that  the  '  Life  of  Christ '  was  in 
two  forms,  an  expensive  and  large  form  with  pictures, 
and  a  small  popular  edition ;  and  unless  I  misunderstood 
him  (he  was  speaking  in  Swedish),  he  said  that  your 
'  Life  of  Christ '  had  gone  into  more  than  one  edition. 
The  old  soldier's  face  brightened  as  he  talked  about  it 
and  you. 

"Though,  I  believe,  as  life  gets  on,  you  feel  less  and 
less  to  care  for  criticism,  favourable  or  adverse,  than 
you  once  did,  yet  it  must  be  a  joyous  satisfaction  to 
you  to  think  that  you  are  the  unknown  teacher  of  thou- 
sands who  will  never  know  your  face  in  the  flesh ;  and 
that  you  can  afford  to  appeal  to  the  hearts  of  these, 
when  you  are  nibbled  at  by  stupid  old  Mrs.  Orthodoxy, 
and  priggish  Miss  Criticism,  and  bitter  Mr.  ! 

"  I  have  been  wandering  alone  for  seven  weeks  in 
Norway  and  Sweden,  perhaps  more  interested  than 
instructed.  But,  if  you  do  not  fear  the  sea  voyage,  I 
could  recommend  it  from  its  health-giving  character 
(equally  with  the  Engadine),  as  a  very  accessible  spot 
for  an  overworked  man  to  run  off  to  in  an  August,  any 
year. 

"  Forgive  my  intrusiveness,  and  believe  me, 


"  Reverend  Father  :  Sir, 

"  Your  admirable  work,  '  The  Life  of  Jesus  Christ,' 
was  translated  into  Russian,  and  had  several  editions. 


Ever  yours  faithfully, 


"  A.  S.  F. 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  209 


We  have  nothing  similar  in  our  literature,  therefore  you 
will  find  this  work  not  only  in  the  metropolis,  but  in 
remote  parts  of  our  vast  empire.  My  mother  is  the 
proprietress  of  a  country  land  in  the  Sovern  of  Smo- 
lensk district,  Sytscheoka  village,  Nashokino,  with  a  very 
beautiful  orthodox  church,  at  a  distance  of  twenty-two 
hours  from  St.  Petersburg,  and  about  fifteen  hours 
from  Moscow.  Now  I  take  the  liberty  to  ask  your 
photographic  card  for  presenting  to  my  mother  at  the 
day  of  her  names  day  the  17/29  Sept.  I  am  assured 
that  a  better  present  I  cannot  imagine.  In  the  same 
time  I  must  inform  you  that  your  admirable  book  pro- 
duced many  times  a  real  consolation  in  her  solitude, 
and  not  only  your  name  is  pronounced  with  veneration, 
but  your  book  read  always  with  a  full  admiration  in  our 
family.  Now  you  see  that  the  aim  of  this  letter  was 
to  inform  you  of  my  sincere  intention,  and  of  the  effect 
produced  by  your  book  in  Russia. 

"  I  am,  sir,  with  fullest  respect,  your  very  obedient 
servant, 

"A.  Lomonosoff,  F.R.G.S.C." 

"  Rev.  Father  Mr.  Farrar,  Chaplain  of  H.  M.  the 
Queen  of  Great  Britain  care  Mr.  Quaritch  editor  and 
bookseller." 

"  Most  Reverend  Father  and  honoured  Sir  !  De- 
lighted with  the  depth  of  the  thought,  the  charm  of 
the  narration  and  the  new  clear  view  of  your  respected 
book,  '  The  Life  of  Christ,'  the  idea  occurred  to  me  of 
consecrating  my  time  to  its  translation  into  Russian, 
and  of  thereby  acquainting  our  society  with  the  English 
fathers  of  the  Church,  as  yet  quite  unknown  to  the 
Russian  public. 


210 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  I  therefore  beg  you  will  grant  me  your  permission 
and  benediction  to  begin  my  work. 

"  But  I  find  it  my  duty  to  add,  that  as  there  exists  in 
Russia  an  ecclesiastical  censure,  jealously  guarding  not 
only  the  dogmas,  but  the  traditions  and  rules,  I  am 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  changing  the  text  in  some 
places,  for  only  on  this  condition  the  book  may  be 
published  in  Russian. 

"  Guided  by  your  saint  blessing  I  shall  do  my  best  to 
make  my  translation,  as  much  as  possible,  correspond 
to  the  perfect  original. 

"With  the  most  profound  respect  I  am, 
"  Most  Reverend  Father  and  dear  Sir, 

"  Your  devoted  servant, 

"Theodor  Matveieo." 

"Stockholm,  April  15th,  1902. 

"  My  Reverend  Sir  :  It  has  been  my  wish  for  many 
years  to  send  you  a  few  lines  from  an  unlearned  layman, 
but  have  hesitated  as  I  was  sure  that  you  would  be 
troubled  by  receiving  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  warm 
affections  of  thanks  for  the  valuable  enlightening  con- 
tents of  your  writings. 

"  However,  after  having  read  for  the  third  time  'The 
Bible,  Its  Meaning  and  Supremacy,'  I  feel  it  impossible 
to  refrain  from  sending  you  the  warmest  thanks  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart,  for  all  the  great,  beautiful,  and 
glorious  benefits  I  have  received  from  the  merciful  hand 
of  God  through  your  works. 

"I  have  read  'The  Life  of  Christ,'  'Eternal  Hope,' 
'  Mercy  and  Judgment,'  '  Seekers  after  God,'  '  Life  of 
Christ  represented  in  Art,'  '  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,' 
and  now  at  last  '  The  Bible,  Its  Meaning  and  Suprem- 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  211 


acy,'  and  now  I  can  say,  through  these  works  God  has 
become  to  me  greater  and  more  glorious ;  Christ,  my 
Saviour,  better  understood,  more  loved  and  indispensa- 
ble ;  the  Bible  more  precious,  and  my  view  of  things 
wider,  brighter,  and  clearer.  I  have  rejoiced  with  ad- 
miration that  with  your  amazing  erudition  you  have  the 
power  of  expressing  the  deepest  truths  in  a  language 
simple  enough  to  be  understood  by  laymen.  Your 
brilliant  exposition,  however  valuable,  is  yet  of  less  value 
than  the  great  simplicity  with  which  the  most  important 
vital  questions  are  set  forth  and  answered  by  you. 

"  Be  pleased,  therefore,  to  accept  my  deeply  felt,  sin- 
cere gratitude  for  all  the  joy  and  blessing  your  writings 
have  for  many  years  given  my  spirit  in  its  thirst  after 
the  things  of  eternity. 

"  May  God  richly  bless  you  and  may  His  promise  be 
fulfilled  in  you.  They  that  turn  many  to  righteousness 
shall  shine  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever. 

"  With  profound  respect,  your  humble  and  respectful 
servant, 

"C.  O.  B., 

"  Formerly  member  of  the  Swedish  Parliament." 

"Oct.  24,  1879. 

"  Dear  Canon  Farrar  :  Allow  one  of  your  many 
readers  to  thank  you  heartily  and  sincerely  for  much 
profit,  instruction,  and  benefit  received  from  your  ardu- 
ous, honest,  painstaking  labours,  in  bringing,  as  it  were 
to  our  very  doors,  the  living,  ever  living,  story  of  the 
'  Divine  Artisan '  in  his  daily  life  in  Palestine.  You 
have  coloured  my  life  since  perusing  the  pages  of  His 
life  as  narrated  so  graphically,  so  truth-lovingly  by  you 
in  this  nineteenth  century. 


212 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  Perhaps  it  may  interest  you  to  know  that  at  the 
time  it  was  published  one  Englishman  '  up  to  the  neck 
in  business '  and  for  a  fortnight  employing  a  cab  some 
eight  hours  a  day,  made  it  the  pleasant  companion  of 
solitude  in  his  cab  and  elsewhere  in  this  big,  busy  Lon- 
don ;  and  not  even  the  pleasure  of  reading  for  the  first 
time  Southey's'  'Nelson'  or  Boswell's  'Johnson'  or 
Lockhart's  '  Scott '  (which  few  forget)  was  equal  to  the 
zest  with  which  he  perused  page  by  page  the  wondrous 
record  of  Jesus  the  great  philanthropist,  physician, 
teacher,  and  Saviour  of  all  mankind. 

"  I  had  read  Neander  and  Renan.  The  Frenchman's 
vivid  word-paintings  of  the  '  Surroundings,'  his  charm- 
ing landscapes,  his  vivid  colouring  and  animated  style 
may  interest,  but,  as  water  can  only  rise  to  its  own  level, 
so  his  conception  of  a  benevolent  Frenchman  lacking 
the  divine,  has  never  taken  hold  of  the  common  people, 
who  heard  the  Divine  Founder  of  our  common  Chris- 
tianity so  gladly ;  presenting  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
audience  your  book  has  gained  amongst  ail  classes  in 
England.  .  .  . 

«  >> 


"Bickley  Vicarage,  Kent,  May  22,  1874. 

"  My  Dear  Farrar  :  I  have  seldom  welcomed  a  gift 
book  more  than  the  two  volumes  which  you  have  so 
kindly  sent  me.  I  feel  sure  that  they  will  live,  and  that 
many  men  of  all  parties  will  acknowledge  that  you  have 
done  good  service  to  the  cause  of  the  Great  Master  in 
writing  them. 

"And  to  many  thousands,  I  cannot  doubt,  they  will 
come  as  at  once  widening  their  knowledge  and  by  it 
strengthening  their  faith,  as  showing  that  freedom  and 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  213 


reverence  are  not  only  not  incompatible  with  each  other, 
but  attain  their  true  proportions  and  reach  their  end 
only  when  they  work  together.  From  some  sections, 
chiefly,  I  imagine,  the  Extreme  Right  and  the  Extreme 
Left,  you  must  expect  sharp  attacks ;  but  those  who  set 
things  at  their  true  value  will  see  in  these  attacks  almost 
a  guarantee  of  excellence. 

"  I  feel  humbled  by  the  kind,  too  kind,  way  in 
which  you  have  mentioned  my  name  in  the  Preface.  I 
feel  that  the  book  owes  very  little,  directly,  to  anything 
that  I  have  been  able  to  contribute,  and  I  have  seldom 
more  regretted  the  pressure  of  work  and  care  which  has 
been  on  me  for  the  last  eight  or  nine  months  than  when 
I  found  it  hindering  me  in  what  I  would  so  gladly  have 
done  under  happier  conditions.  I  am  content  to  think 
that  long  years  ago  I  was,  perhaps,  enabled  to  open  to 
your  mind  the  path  in  which  it  has  gone  on  so  success- 
fully, and  has  attained  results  which  I  only  dreamed  of. 
At  present  I  feel  as  if  my  lot  were  rather  that  of  a 
hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water  for  the  Temple 
than  to  offer  the  sacrifice  or  wave  the  incense  or  sit  in 
Moses'  seat. 

"  When  will  you  come  and  see  us  ? 

"  Ever  yours  affectionately, 

"  E.  H.  P[lumptre]." 

"Nov.  17,  1879. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  Cassell's  people  have  at  last 
sent  me  the  copy  of  '  St.  Paul '  which  you  kindly  destined 
for  me. 

"  I  shall  value  it  as  being  a  treasury  of  thought  and 
knowledge  to  which  I  shall  always  turn  with  the  cer- 
tainty of  finding  much  that  I  would  not  find  elsewhere. 


214  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  I  must  thank  you  also  for  the  kindly  mention  of 
my  name  in  the  Preface. 

"  No  good  work,  I  imagine,  is  ever  done  in  the  world 
without  a  semi-chorus  of  '  detractions  rude,'  but  in  the 
long  run,  or  even,  as  in  this  case,  the  short  run,  this  is 
more  than  balanced  by  the  knowledge  that  the  work 
has  been  helpful  to  those  whom  it  was  meant  to  help. 
'  Securus  judicat  orbis  terrarum.'  I  am  so  glad  that 
Hilda  and  Margaret  have  met. 

"  With  all  kindest  regards, 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  E.  H.  Plumptre." 


"The  Temple,  May  3,  1879. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  I  have  trespassed  unduly  on 
your  long  friendship  by  delaying  thus  long  my  expres- 
sion of  gratitude  for  the  gift  of  your  book.  Hitherto, 
I  have  not  been  able  to  read  it  continuously ;  I  have 
dipped  here  and  there  into  its  contents,  at  points  of 
special  interest,  finding  always  something  to  admire,  if 
also  (as  must  be  the  case  where  one  has  lived  so  long 
and  so  intimately  with  the  subject),  something  also  to 
hesitate  or  to  pause  upon. 

"  You  need  not  words  of  mine,  dear  Farrar,  to  assure 
you  of  the  success  of  your  great  untertaking,  both  as  a 
matter  of  public  interest  and  of  grateful  and  devout  study. 
I  know  which  of  the  two  you  will  most  value,  —  the 
heartfelt  thanks  of  those  whom  you  help  to  enter  with 
a  fuller  appreciation  into  those  immortal  writings,  or 
the  more  superficial  applause  of  people  who  admire 
eloquence  and  assent  without  judgment. 

"  I  shall  have  the  book  always  near  me.    I  shall  use 


THEOLOGICAL  WRITINGS  215 


it,  as  I  have  used  1  The  Life  of  Christ,'  whenever  I  want 
to  be  sure  that  I  have  not  overlooked  something  vital 
in  the  interpretation  or  enforcement  of  the  inspired 
Word. 

"  May  the  highest  and  best  of  blessings  be  upon  your 
work  and  upon  the  workman  ! 

"  Your  attached  old  friend, 

"C.  T.  Vaughan." 


CHAPTER  IX 


st.  Margaret's,  Westminster 

In  1875  Mr.  Disraeli  (as  he  then  was)  offered  my 
father  the  crown  living  of  Halifax,  which,  after  some 
hesitation,  he  declined. 

"  Confidential. 

"The  Lodge,  Marlborough  College. 

"  My  dear  Vesey  :  I  am  offered  (strictly  entre  nous) 
the  Crown  Living  of  Halifax,  —  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant. I  shrink  from  it  utterly  and  am  sorry  it  has  been 
offered.  Moreover  Marlboro'  has  serious  claims  on  me, 
and  I  feel  a  most  deep  conviction  of  my  entire  unfitness. 
You  have  known  me  for  twenty  years :  Could  I  do  the 
work  ?  Ought  I  to  take  it  ?  The  decision  must,  one  way 
or  other,  affect  my  whole  future  life.  Do  let  me  have 
your  sympathy,  your  prayers,  and  what  I  shall  enor- 
mously value,  your  advice. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar. 

"I  have  written  to  Disraeli  to  ask  till  Monday  to 
decide." 

"The  Lodge,  Marlborough  College,  June  15,  1875. 

"  My  dear  Vesey  :  I  have  been  torn  by  conflicting 
advice  and  conflicting  views  of  duty,  but  this  afternoon 
—  not  without  many  a  pang  of  misgiving  —  telegraphed 

216 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER 


217 


what  is  probably  a  final  refusal.  I  believe  Halifax  will 
soon  be  a  Bp's  see.  Crushed  with  work  or  would  write 
more. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

In  1876  my  father  accepted  at  Mr.  Disraeli's  hands 
the  post  of  Canon  of  Westminster  and  Rector  of  St. 
Margaret's,  in  succession  to  Canon  Conway.  Writing  of 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  he  says :  — 

"  To  me  he  was  always  conspicuously  kind,  though  he 
was  perfectly  well  aware  that  I  belonged  to  the  Liberal 
school  of  politics.  It  was  he  who,  when  I  was  Master 
of  Marlborough  College,  offered  me  the  important  and 
valuable  vicarage  of  Halifax,  which,  however,  I  was  un- 
able to  accept.  He  now  offered  me  the  Canonry  of 
Westminster,  which  is  attached  by  act  of  Parliament  to 
the  rectory  of  St.  Margaret's.  I  kept  him  long  waiting 
for  an  answer ;  for  at  that  time  I  had  no  experience  in 
parochial  work,  and  in  those  days  the  parish  was  not  only 
far  more  densely  populous,  but  also  unspeakably  more 
wretched  than  it  subsequently  became.  Had  I  followed 
my  own  inclination,  I  should  have  shrunk  from  so  heavy 
a  burden,  and  all  the  more  because  the  church  itself  was 
then  as  repellently  unattractive,  with  its  churchwardens' 
Gothic  and  hideous  galleries,  as  it  subsequently  became 
beautiful  and  interesting.  But,  on  consulting  friends  of 
some  distinction  in  the  Church,  they  advised  me  to  ac- 
cept the  offer;  and  I  did  so.  Dean  Wellesley  told  me 
afterwards  that  if  I  had  asked  his  advice  he  would  have 
recommended  me  to  decline;  and  that,  in  that  case,  it 
was  certain  a  higher  office  would  have  speedily  been 
placed  at  my  disposal.  I  do  not,  however,  in  the  least 
regret  this,  though  I  was  assured  on  the  highest  author- 


218  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


ity,  that  the  only  reason  which  deterred  Lord  Beacons- 
field  from  promoting  me  later  on  was  the  outburst  of 
denunciation  which  followed  the  publishing  of  my  ser- 
mons on  'Eternal  Hope.'  This  is  no  more  a  subject  of 
regret  to  me  than  the  other.  The  determination  of  our 
little  destinies  lies  in  hands  far  higher  than  our  own,  and 
I  have  every  reason  to  thank  God  that,  throughout  my 
life,  the  lot  has,  by  His  mercy,  fallen  to  me  in  pleasant 
places.  When  some  kind  friend  said  to  Mr.  Disraeli,  as 
he  then  was,  '  Why,  you  have  given  preferment  to  a 
strong  Radical '  (a  remark  which  certainly  required  modi- 
fication), he  only  answered,  with  a  laugh,  that  'perhaps 
I  should  in  time  be  brought  round  to  his  own  views.' " 

On  the  last  occasion  when  my  father  ever  met  the 
great  statesman  he  said  to  him  at  parting,  "  Dr.  Farrar, 
I  have  always  felt  a  sincere  regard  for  you." 

It  may  here  be  noted  that  every  successive  promotion 
in  my  father's  career,  from  Marlborough  onwards,  was 
an  "  Irish  rise "  in  point  of  income,  involving  some 
pecuniary  loss.  The  head-mastership  of  Marlborough 
was  far  less  lucrative  than  the  command  of  a  large 
house  at  Harrow,  and  the  position  involved  a  larger 
expenditure  in  hospitality.  His  Westminster  preferment 
was,  again,  less  lucrative  than  Marlborough ;  while  ac- 
ceptance of  the  deanery  of  Canterbury  involved  a  very 
heavy  sacrifice  of  income. 

How  reluctant  he  was  to  leave  his  beloved  Marl- 
borough, may  be  gathered  from  the  following  letter  :  — 

"July  26,  1875. 

"  My  dear  Vesey  :  I  must  write  to  tell  you  how 
much  your  kind  help  at  St.  M.'s  has  cheered  me,  and 
how  grateful  I  am  for  this  proof  of  your  affection  and 

sympathy. 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  219 


"  The  bitterness  of  death  is  past.  I  start  to-morrow 
for  1  Marine  Parade,  Folkestone,  where  we  stay  until 
we  exchange  the  sweetness  and  freshness  of  God's 
country  —  the  air  full  of  roses  and  jasmine  scent,  the 
garden,  the  river,  the  downs,  the  forest,  the  West  Woods 
—  for  the  choking  atmosphere  and  dusty  purlieus  of 
Westminster.  I  change  the  inexplicable  dearness  of  a 
good,  bright,  and  most  flourishing  English  school  for 
the  dull,  close-fisted  suspicions,  envies,  hatred,  malice, 
and  all  uncharitableness  of  grown  traders  in  the  '  big, 
brutal,  brick-bombarded  Babylon.'  Misery,  you  see, 
makes  sport  to  mock  itself. 

"  No,  I  was  not  offered  Calcutta,  —  should  have  gone 
if  I  had  been.  I  have  the  feeling  one  has  in  sea-sick- 
ness :  '  Please  chuck  me  overboard.' 

"  The  proofs  which  the  last  week  has  brought  that  I 
have  stirred  and  touched  boys'  hearts  and  consciences 
are  a  fresh  pang.  Why  God  removes  me  from  this 
work  I  know  not.  I  know  that  all  we  have  in  life  is 
His,  not  ours,  lent,  not  given,  given  sometimes  and  then 
taken  away,  and  then  given  back  (sometimes)  in  the 
same  or  other  forms.  May  He  grant  this  to  me,  and 
give  me  back,  if  not  the  past,  and  work  so  sweet  and  so 
encouraging,  and  so  suited  to  my  powers  (for  that  can- 
not be),  at  least  the  country  again ! 

"  I  shall  work  at  St.  M.'s,  at  least  I  shall  try.  God 
knows  what  will  come  of  it  all. 

"  Come  and  see  us,  and  take  a  prophet's  chamber 
when  you  come  to  Convocation. 

"  We  shall  be  starving,  but  you  shall  have  a  crust. 
"  Yours  very  affectionately, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 


220  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


His  ever  affectionate  old  friend,  Dr.  Vaughan,  wrote 
thus  from  the  Temple  :  — 

"April  19,  1876. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  Your  letter  reaches  me  here 
to-day,  and  I  long  to  be  able  to  say  '  God  bless  you ' 
with  a  voice  carrying  comfort  and  reassurance  to  your 
soul.  Such  a  change  is  anxious  and  formidable,  and 
one  is  always  asking  oneself,  '  Why  made  ? '  But  I 
have  an  unshaken  trust  in  the  hand  that  is  over  us,  and 
in  the  love  above  all  love,  which  takes  under  its  charge 
the  new  life,  and  makes  it  quietly  and  half-consciously 
absorb  rather  than  replace  the  old. 

"  You  will  find  a  thousand  interests  arising  around 
you  in  your  new  home  and  work.  It  is  a  grand  work 
in  itself,  though  no  one  knows  better  than  I  that  the 
charge  and  love  of  the  young  can  never  be  equalled  in 
pathos  and  tenderness  by  any  other  work  or  any  other 
oversight  which  can  be  given  us  in  this  world.  Still,  it 
will  be  always  coming  back  upon  you  in  the  form  of 
unexpected  gratitudes  and  imperishable  affections,  seek- 
ing you  out  in  your  new  position  and  ever  looking  to  you 
as  their  natural  rest  and  home.  How  happy  it  will  make 
me  to  feel  that  in  the  great,  and  sometimes  homeless, 
world  of  London  you  will  find  at  the  Temple  a  love  and 
a  sympathy  at  once  old  and  new. 

"  I  know  that  you  will  suffer  yourself  to  look  only 
forward  and  upward,  feeling  that  the  lot  has  fallen,  and 
that  its  disposing  is  of  the  Lord. 

"  Ever  affectionately  yours, 

"  C.  T.  Vaughan." 

In  spite  of  the  natural  pangs  he  felt  in  leaving  Marl- 
borough, the  Rector  soon  became  deeply  attached  to  his 
new  cure. 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  221 


St.  Margaret's  is  an  extremely  interesting,  and,  in 
spite  of  the  hideous  metamorphosis  it  had  undergone  at 
the  hands  of  Puritans  and  eighteenth-century  Philistines, 
an  intrinsically  beautiful  church.  Nestling  under  the 
shadow  of  the  great  Abbey,  the  parish  church  is  as  old 
as  the  Abbey  itself,  being  meant  for  the  population, 
whereas  the  Abbey  church  was  mainly  for  the  monks. 
The  parish  of  St.  Margaret's  is  mentioned  in  a  charter 
of  King  Edgar  as  early  as  a.d.  962.  Shortly  after 
the  great  Abbey  of  Westminster  was  established  on 
Thorney  Island,  there  gathered  round  its  walls  an 
ever-increasing  community  of  persons,  many  of  them 
engaged  in  work  for  the  Abbey.  Others  had  settled 
there  for  the  sake  of  protection,  for  hard  by  was 
the  Sanctuary,  an  historical  connection  still  perpetu- 
ated in  the  names  "Broad  Sanctuary"  and  "Little 
Sanctuary."  In  1064  Edward  the  Confessor  found  that 
the  spiritual  attention  required  by  this  settlement  dis- 
tracted the  monks  from  the  due  exercise  of  their  reli- 
gious duties  and  meditations.  Accordingly  the  saintly 
secular  monarch  caused  a  church  to  be  built  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Abbey,  the  purpose  of  this  edifice  being 
to  serve  as  a  parish  church  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
infant  city  of  Westminster.  The  old  round-arched 
Saxon  building  stood  until  the  reign  of  Edward  I,  when 
it  was  pulled  down,  and  a  new  church  raised  in  its  stead. 
In  the  reign  of  Edward  IV  the  parishioners  modernised 
the  building  into  the  early  Perpendicular  Gothic  edifice 
which  still  stands.  At  a  later  date  the  church  was 
saved  from  destruction  by  the  zeal  of  the  parishioners, 
who  demolished  the  scaffolding  which  Protector  Somer- 
set had  raised  round  it  with  a  view  to  pulling  it  down  to 
make  way  for  a  new  palace  for  himself. 

The  complete  restoration  of  the  ancient  and  historic 


222  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


church  was  the  new  Rector's  first  task.  The  restora- 
tion had  indeed  been  contemplated  in  his  predecessor's 
time,  and  a  small  sum  of  money  had  been  collected,  but 
nothing  further  had  been  done. 

No  trait  was  more  characteristic  of  my  father  than 
his  ardent  devotion  to  the  beauty  of  God's  temple. 
He  passionately  desired  —  not  only  that  the  services  of 
the  temple  should  be,  not  indeed  ornate,  but  decorous 
and  stately,  and  resonant  with  exquisite  melody,  but 
—  that  the  fabric  should  lack  no  structural  dignity  and 
grace  which  could  be  bestowed  on  it,  and  should  glow 
with  the  rich  and  vivid  colouring  for  which  he  had  a 
passion  almost  Oriental. 

When  he  went  to  Marlborough  the  chapel  was  a 
bare  and  barnlike  erection,  which  was,  structurally, 
perhaps  past  praying  for;  but  he  never  rested  till  at 
least  the  interior  had  been  beautified  and  enriched  by 
Bodley's  designs,  till  the  bare  walls  glowed  with  frescoed 
panels,  carved  scroll  work,  and  gilded  tracery.  The 
chapel  being  dedicated  to  St.  Michael  and  All  Angels, 
he  commissioned  Spencer  Stanhope  to  paint  a  series  of 
frescoes  representing  the  angels  of  Scripture,  which 
for  beauty  of  design  and  delicacy  of  colouring  are  among 
that  artist's  masterpieces. 

When  the  new  school  chapel  was  built,  in  1886,  these 
frescoes,  together  with  the  panel  work,  were  transferred 
to  it.  Some  exquisite  windows  by  Burne-Jones  and 
Morris  were  also  added  during  Farrar's  mastership. 

On  coming  to  St.  Margaret's  he  found  the  interior 
of  what  had  been  originally  a  fine  Perpendicular  church 
metamorphosed  into  a  Georgian  changeling  of  the  ugliest 
and  dreariest  type.  Heavy  galleries,  which  my  father 
was  wont  to  compare  to  "  the  receding  forehead  of  a 
gorilla,"  ran  round  three  sides  of  the  building,  the  choir 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  223 


and  organ  being,  as  was  usual  in  Georgian  churches,  in 
the  west  gallery ;  a  sham  apse  of  lath  and  plaster, 
painted  blue  with  gilt  stars,  desecrated  the  chancel ;  the 
fine  Perpendicular  mouldings  of  the  windows  had  been 
destroyed  by  Puritans  or  mere  Philistines  ;  the  pulpit  was 
one  of  the  old  "  two-deckers  "  ;  and  the  walls  were  thickly 
plastered  with  ugly  mural  tablets  setting  forth  the  virtues 
of  worthy  citizens,  long  since  forgotten,  while  on  the 
other  hand  certain  beautiful  and  interesting  Tudor  monu- 
ments were  plastered  up  and  out  of  sight.  The  very 
spirit  of  Georgian  apathy  and  Philistinism  seemed  to  be 
brooding  over  this  once  beautiful  church. 

This  was  a  state  of  things  which  the  Rector  could  not 
tolerate  for  a  single  day.  With  impetuous  energy  he 
set  about  the  Herculean  task  of  sweeping  clean  away  at 
once  the  accumulated  filth  and  the  eighteenth-century 
erections  which  disgraced  the  fabric.  The  wooden  gal- 
leries, together  with  the  sham  apse,  were  ruthlessly 
demolished,  the  plaster  scraped  from  the  walls,  and  the 
stones  pointed.  His  method  of  dealing  with  the  hideous 
mural  tablets  was  distinctly  original.  They  could  not 
well  be  destroyed,  but  the  Rector,  having  obtained  the 
requisite  "faculty,"  consigned  the  bulk  of  them  to  the 
decent  obscurity  of  the  belfry  tower ;  while  the  few  that 
were  beautiful  and  of  interest  were  released  from  their 
plaster  shrouds,  cleaned,  freshly  coloured  where  neces- 
sary, and  placed  in  appropriate  positions.  The  original 
mouldings  of  the  windows,  which  had  been  mostly  re- 
placed by  a  plain  and  tasteless  pattern,  were  restored 
according  to  the  design  of  the  few  that  fortunately 
survived. 

The  ceiling  was  covered  in  with  oak,  an  oak  screen 
was  erected,  and  the  choir  and  the  main  body  of  the 
church  filled  with  carved  oak  pews.    A  carved  stone 


224  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


pulpit  painted  with  glowing  colours  replaced  the  old 
"  two-decker." 

The  pride  and  glory  of  St.  Margaret's  church  is  the 
noble  east  window,  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  and 
interesting  window  in  England.  It  was  originally  pre- 
sented by  the  town  of  Dort,  in  Holland,  to  Henry  VII, 
to  commemorate  the  marriage  of  his  son  Arthur  with 
Catharine  of  Aragon,  and  contains  the  only  surviving 
portrait  of  that  prince.  Intended  to  be  erected  in 
Henry  VII's  chapel  in  Westminster  Abbey,  which 
was  not  yet  completed  at  the  time,  the  window  was 
placed  pro  tempore  in  Waltham  Abbey.  The  relations 
of  Henry  VIII  with  Catharine  of  Aragon  would  not 
be  likely  to  inspire  him  with  any  wish  to  claim  the 
window  for  Westminster ;  and  in  Waltham  Abbey,  ac- 
cordingly, it  remained  till  the  dissolution  of  monasteries, 
when  it  was  removed  to  New  Hall.  There  it  remained 
till  the  civil  wars,  when  it  was  taken  down  and  buried 
underground  by  General  Monk  to  save  the  treasure 
from  the  violence  of  the  Puritans ;  but  at  the  Restora- 
tion it  again  saw  the  light.  About  1740  it  became  the 
subject  of  a  bargain,  and  was  sold  to  a  private  gentle- 
man for  fifty  guineas,  whose  son,  some  twenty  years 
later,  realised  a  handsome  profit  by  selling  it,  for  four 
hundred  guineas,  to  the  restorers  of  St.  Margaret's, 
where  it  has  found  its  permanent  resting  place. 

The  authorities  of  Westminster  Abbey  instituted  a 
lawsuit  to  recover  what  they  considered,  perhaps  not 
unjustly,  to  be  their  property  ;  but  the  then  Rector  and 
churchwardens  of  St.  Margaret's,  holding  possession  to 
be  nine  points  of  the  law,  fought  stoutly  to  retain  what 
had  been  for  so  long  their  own,  and  after  prolonged  liti- 
gation won  the  lawsuit  and  kept  the  window.  When 
my  father  was  restoring  the  church  he  found  that  the 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  225 


window  had  suffered  rather  seriously  from  damp  during 
its  prolonged  sojourn  in  the  earth,  and  that  the  colour 
was  flaking  off  in  parts.  To  preserve  it  from  future 
damage  it  was  thought  necessary  to  cover  it  with  a  fac- 
ing of  plate  glass.  This  somewhat  detracts  from  the 
appearance  of  the  window,  but  it  is  hoped  that  it  will 
have  the  desired  effect  of  saving  this  priceless  treasure 
of  art  for  future  generations.  The  interstice  of  masonry, 
between  the  moulding  proper  to  this  window  and  that  of 
the  window  put  in  during  the  Civil  War,  was  filled  with 
beautiful  fresco  work  by  Clayton  and  Bell. 

The  churchyard,  when  the  new  Rector  came,  was 
filled  with  crumbling  tombstones  with  indecipherable 
legends,  the  vacant  spaces  between  which  held  muddy 
pools  of  water  in  rainy  weather.  He  boldly  determined 
to  sink  these  obsolete  memorials  six  feet  under  the  earth. 
After  obtaining  the  necessary  "  faculty,"  and  getting 
with  infinite  labour  and  the  exercise  of  much  tact  the 
permission  of  surviving  relatives,  this  was  accomplished  ; 
and  Londoners  of  to-day  may  well  be  grateful  for  the 
fine  tract  of  close  green  turf  which  forms  such  an  effec- 
tive foreground  to  the  Abbey.  An  inner  vestry  was 
added,  and  the  final  structural  improvement  was  the 
addition  of  the  beautiful  west  porch  in  1891. 

I  may  mention  among  the  features  which  give  interest 
to  the  church  a  carved  reredos  in  lemon  wood,  Italian 
work —  circa  1768.  This  represents  Our  Lord  at  supper 
with  the  two  disciples  at  Emmaus.  One  of  the  disciples 
is  a  portrait  of  Cardinal  Ximenes. 

I  have  dealt  with  the  restoration  of  St.  Margaret's  at 
some  length,  because  the  story  is  very  characteristic  of 
my  father's  zeal  for  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  also 
of  his  thoroughness,  energy,  and  diligence.  None  but 
those  who  remember  the  church  as  it  was,  and  are  able 


226  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


to  contrast  this  picture  mentally  with  its  present  condi- 
tion, can  realise  how  gigantic  was  the  task,  nothing  less 
than  the  transformation  of  the  whole  building  from  roof 
to  floor.  And  none  but  those  who  were  behind  the 
scenes  can  realise  the  labour  it  cost,  the  hundreds  of 
letters  it  involved,  and  the  efforts  needed  to  raise  the 
necessary  funds,  a  feat  that  would  have  been  impossible 
for  a  man  of  less  commanding  influence. 

Having  restored  the  fabric  and  made  it  worthy  of  its 
ancient  traditions,  my  father  proceeded  further  to  beau- 
tify the  church,  in  which  he  now  felt  the  greatest  pride, 
by  filling  the  windows  with  stained  glass.  When  he 
came  to  St.  Margaret's  there  was  only  one  stained  glass 
window  in  the  building,  the  glorious  east  window.  The 
Rector  successfully  exerted  all  his  influence  with  his 
friends  to  procure  the  erection  of  a  series  of  windows 
commemorative  of  the  history  of  the  church,  and  made 
further  interesting  by  quatrains  inscribed  under  them, 
specially  composed  for  him  by  some  of  our  greatest  poets. 
Of  these  my  father  has  told  the  story  in  "  Men  I  Have 
Known,"  from  which  I  have  introduced  some  extracts 
for  the  interest  of  the  personal  reminiscences  involved. 

"  The  printers  of  London  gave  me  a  beautiful  stained 
glass  window  in  memory  of  the  first  English  printer, 
who  lies  buried  in  the  church,  and  whose  signature 
occurs  in  its  records  as  an  auditor  of  its  accounts.  I 
wanted  to  place  four  lines  under  the  window,  and  asked 
the  Laureate  to  write  them  for  me,  suggesting  that  he 
might  make  them  turn  on  Caxton's  motto,  '  Fiat  Lux.' 
I  was  with  him  when  he  wrote  them,  in  his  bedroom  at 
the  deanery  of  Westminster,  and  witnessed,  so  to  speak, 
their  birth  throes,  until  he  became  satisfied  with  them. 
He  declared  that  they  had  cost  him  more  trouble  than 
many  a  substantial  poem.    They  are  :  — 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  227 


"  Thy  prayer  was  '  Light  —  more  Light  —  while  Time  shall  last ! ' 
Thou  sawest  a  glory  growing  on  the  night. 
But  not  the  shadows  which  that  Light  would  cast 
Till  shadows  vanish  in  the  Light  of  Light. 

"  When  I  placed  the  Jubilee  window  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria's reign  in  St.  Margaret's,  I  asked  Mr.  Browning 
to  write  the  quatrain  under  it  for  me.  He  did  so,  and 
these  were  the  four  highly  characteristic  lines :  — 

"Fifty  years'  flight  !  wherein  should  he  rejoice 
Who  hailed  their  birth,  who  as  they  die  decays  ? 
This  :  — England  echoes  his  attesting  voice  — 
Wondrous  and  well :  thanks,  Ancient  Thou  of  Days. 

"The  very  quaintness  of  the  lines,  —  their  charac- 
teristic oddness  of  collocation,  as  in  '  Ancient  Thou  of 
Days,' — the  fact  that  they  were  written  in  the  poet's 
special  style  of  what  his  critics  called  '  Browningese,' 
made  them  more  interesting  to  me  than  if  they  had  been 
smooth  and  commonplace.  They  illustrate  the  cause 
which  made  people  call  him  unintelligible ;  namely, 
that  his  sentences  frequently  did  not  '  construe,'  but 
required  some  long  subauditur  to  show  their  dependence. 

"  Yet  so  far  was  he  from  being  careless  about  the 
lines,  that  he  took  the  trouble  of  a  long  walk  to  St. 
Margaret's  to  see  if  they  were  correctly  punctuated  on 
the  brass  plate  underneath  the  window.  He  found  that 
the  engraver  had  altered  a  comma,  and  requested  me  to 
have  it  at  once  corrected. 

"  When  the  fine  west  window  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
was  given  to  me  by  Americans  to  commemorate  the 
fact  that  the  headless  body  of  that  great  explorer  lies 
buried  in  St.  Margaret's,  I  chose  Mr.  Lowell  (who  was 
then  the  American  Ambassador)  as  the  fittest  poet  to 
write  the  memorial  quatrain. 


228 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  The  New  World's  Sons,  from  England's  breasts  we  drew 
Such  milk  as  bids  remember  whence  we  came ; 
Proud  of  her  Past,  whereupon  our  Future  grew : 
This  window  we  inscribe  to  Raleigh's  fame. 

"When  I  told  Mr.  Childs  (of  Philadelphia)  how 
closely  Milton  had  been  connected  with  St.  Margaret's, 
where  his  banns  of  marriage  were  published,  and  where 
his  dearest  wife  ('my  late  espoused  saint')  and  infant 
daughter  lie  buried,  he  gladly  consented  to  give  a 
window  to  Milton's  memory.  For  this  window  I  asked 
Mr.  Whittier  to  write  the  inscription. 

"The  New  World  honours  him  whose  lofty  plea 
For  England's  freedom  made  her  own  more  sure, 
Whose  song,  immortal  as  its  theme,  shall  be 
Their  common  freehold  while  both  worlds  endure." 

The  bodies  of  certain  Cromwellians  were  basely 
ejected  from  Westminster  Abbey  at  the  Restoration. 
Among  those  thus  foully  outraged  was  the  body  of 
Admiral  Blake.  My  father  rejoiced  to  pay  a  belated 
tribute  to  Blake's  memory,  by  inducing  naval  officers 
and  others  to  subscribe  to  a  window  to  his  memory  in 
St.  Margaret's.    He  thus  writes  :  — 

"  His  dishonoured  resting-place  is  that  promiscuous 
and  forgotten  pit,  which  to  the  shame  of  our  indifference 
covers  the  mortal  remains  of  Pym,  of  Strode,  of  May 
the  historian  and  poet,  and  of  Cromwell's  venerable 
mother.  Into  that  pit  in  St.  Margaret's  churchyard 
their  bodies  were  flung,  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
years  ago,  by  the  meanest  act  of  revenge  upon  the  dead 
which  ever  disgraced  an  English  king  and  an  English 
Parliament.  And  no  honour  has  ever  since  been  shown 
to  the  man  whose  splendid  courage  held  Portugal  and 
France  in  awe ;  who  chastised  the  pirates  of  Tunis ; 
who  defended  England  against  the  fleets  of  Van  Tromp 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  229 

and  De  Ruyter  and  De  Witt,  and  who  died  on  his  way 
from  that  great  victory  at  Santa  Cruz,  in  which  he 
attacked  and  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet  after  deeds 
unsurpassed  even  by  Grenville  or  by  Nelson." 

For  the  Blake  window  the  following  lines  were  written 
by  Sir,  then  Mr.,  Lewis  Morris:  — 

Kingdom  or  Commonwealth  was  naught  to  thee, 
But  to  crown  England  queen  o'er  every  sea. 

Strong  sailor,  dauntless  patriot,  true  and  just, 
Rest  here!  our  Abbey  keeps  no  nobler  dust. 

For  the  Lloyd  window  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  wrote :  — 

A  master  printer  of  the  press,  he  spake 
By  mouth  of  many  tongues,  he  swayed 

The  pens  which  break  the  sceptres. 
Good  Lord,  make 
Thy  strong  ones  faithful  and  thy  bold  afraid. 

"  My  dear  son,  Cyril  Lytton  Farrar,  was  Lord  Lytton's 
godson,  and  was  named  after  him  :  and  when  this  glad- 
hearted  and  gifted  youth  died  at  Peking  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  Lord  Lytton  contributed  the  lines  placed 
under  the  memorial  window  in  the  vestry  of  St. 
Margaret's :  — 

"Dead  almost  ere  his  race  of  life  began, 
Far  is  his  boyhood's  grave  in  bright  Cathay : 
Farther  beyond  our  reach  the  future  man, 
Whose  life  has  now  begun  the  larger  Day." 

And  — "  Mr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  wrote  for  me 
the  quatrain  which  is  carved  on  his  memorial  tablet :  — 

"  Afar  he  sleeps  whose  name  is  graven  here 
Where  loving  hearts  his  early  doom  deplore  ; 

Youth,  promise,  virtue,  all  that  made  him  dear, 
Heaven  lent,  earth  borrowed,  sorrowing  to  restore." 


230 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


The  death  in  1891  of  my  brother  Cyril  in  China,  where 
he  was  an  officer  in  the  "Customs,"  was  a  great  grief 
to  my  father.  Cyril  was  a  youth  of  rare  promise,  of  a 
singularly  gay  and  sunny  temperament,  rich  in  artistic 
talents,  and  one  who  amid  manifold  temptations  pre- 
served the  purity  and  simplicity  of  his  childhood,  and 
"  kept  the  spell  of  home  affection  still  alive  in  his  heart." 
Of  his  early  death  my  father  wrote :  "  All  life  will  be 
darker  to  the  end  because  of  it."  His  home  letters, 
some  brimming  over  with  pure  fun  and  merriment,  some 
describing  his  life  in  China  with  graphic  descriptive 
touches  which  gave  promise  of  great  literary  power, 
others,  dealing  candidly  with  his  religious  difficulties  and 
spiritual  aspirations,  have  been  enshrined  by  his  father 
in  a  volume  of  touching  interest,  printed  for  private 
circulation,  "  Memorials  of  Cyril  Lytton  Farrar."  At 
this  time  Dr.  Vaughan  wrote  to  him  :  — 

-The  Temple,  February  8,  1891. 

"  My  dear  old  Friend  :  I  could  not  read  unmoved 
the  tidings  of  your  great  sorrow.  The  loss  of  a  dear 
son  seems  to  me  (to  whom  it  can  only  be  an  imagina- 
tion) almost  too  hard  a  trial  to  be  lived  through.  But 
you  are  borne  up  by  a  firmer  faith  than  mine.  The  dis- 
tance adds  to  the  bitterness  —  depriving  you  of  the 
sorrowful  comfort  of  looking  upon  the  dear  face  in  death 
and  laying  the  precious  body  in  its  last  bed. 

"  May  God  comfort  you  and  the  dear  patient  sufferer 
beside  you  —  and  dear  Eric  too,  and  the  loving  sisters. 
I  hope,  and  I  hear,  that  your  great  effort  of  last  Mon- 
day was  got  through  before  you  actually  knew  of  the 
departure  from  earth. 

"  Always,  in  joy  and  sorrow, 

"  Affectionately  and  gratefully  yours, 

"  C.  T.  Vaughan." 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  231 


During  the  restoration  of  St.  Margaret's,  services  were 
held  in  the  Chapter  House  of  Westminster  Abbey,  and 
with  characteristic  liberality  the  Rector  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity thus  afforded  him  of  inviting  Max  M idler  and 
other  distinguished  laymen  to  occupy  the  pulpit. 

The  restored  church  soon  became  the  centre  of  in- 
tense spiritual  activity,  and  one  of  the  most  popularly 
frequented  in  London.  To  meet  the  demand  for  seats 
of  the  hundreds  who  flocked  from  all  quarters  of  the 
town  to  hear  the  golden-voiced  preacher,  a  system  was 
adopted  which  seemed  to  be  equitable  to  regular  parish- 
ioners and  strangers  alike.  There  were  no  pew-rents, 
but  sittings  were  assigned  to  members  of  the  congre- 
gation, and  reserved  for  them,  if  they  chose  to  be 
punctual,  till  the  moment  the  organ  began  to  play.  From 
that  moment  all  seats  became  free,  and  strangers  were 
at  liberty  to  occupy  any  pew  of  which  the  regular  ten- 
ants were  not  already  in  possession.  The  Rector  himself 
almost  invariably  preached  on  Sunday  mornings,  and 
the  sight  of  the  morning  congregation  was  deeply  im- 
pressive. Not  only  was  every  pew  quite  full,  but  the 
chairs  in  the  aisles,  the  chancel  steps,  the  step  of  the 
altar  rails,  even  the  steps  of  the  pulpit  itself  were  eagerly 
seized  upon.  Hassocks  were  passed  out  from  the  pews 
to  seat  others,  many  were  glad  to  stand  throughout  the 
service,  and  frequently  scores  who  had  been  unable  to 
find  even  standing  room  overflowed  into  the  adjacent 
Abbey.  The  style  of  these  sermons  has  been  criticised, 
—  tastes  differ, — but  no  one  dare  deny  that  the  elo- 
quent pastor  fed  the  spiritual  hunger  of  thousands  of 
earnest  men  and  women.  And  his  words  rang  out  with 
authority,  and  came  home  to  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men,  because  his  hearers  felt  that  the  passionate  elo- 
quence was  no  mere  rhetoric,  but  the  language  of  utter 


232  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


sincerity  and  intense  conviction,  the  language  of  one 
who  was,  as  has  been  said  of  Luther,  a  "  Gott-ertrunkener 
Mensch,"  a  man  steeped  in  God,  who  preached  not  for 
effect,  but  lived  the  truth  he  preached,  who  loved  right- 
eousness with  all  the  force  of  his  being  and  hated  sin 
with  a  perfect  hatred.  The  wife  of  the  present  writer 
was  once  walking  with  the  Rector  in  the  Chapter  Garden 
at  Westminster,  and  ventured  to  say,  "  That  was  a  won- 
derful sermon  you  preached  this  morning;  do  you  mind 
my  asking  do  you  believe  it  all,  every  word  ?  "  "  Ab- 
solutely," replied  my  father.  "  But  what  would  you  do 
if,  after  death,  you  found  it  was  partly  a  mistake  after 
all  ? "  "  I  should  go  before  the  throne  and  say,  '  I  fol- 
lowed my  reason  and  my  conscience,  the  highest  things 
I  had  to  guide  me.'  " 

To  the  question  of  my  father's  sermons  I  shall  recur 
in  the  next  chapter. 

St.  Margaret's  had  long  been  the  church  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  The  Rector  strove  to  render  this  official 
connection,  which  had  almost  fallen  into  abeyance,  a  real 
and  vital  one.  Seats  were  reserved  at  Sunday  morning 
services  for  members,  and  the  Speaker,  several  officials 
of  the  House,  and  many  of  the  members  were  regular 
attendants.  Special  services  were  held  in  St.  Margaret's 
to  commemorate  the  Queen's  Jubilee  and  on  other  occa- 
sions, and  the  emphasis  thus  given  to  religious  observ- 
ance in  connection  with  the  great  council  of  the  nation 
was  felt  to  be  of  real  value. 

The  selection,  therefore,  of  the  Rector  of  St.  Mar- 
garet's to  be  Chaplain  to  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
1890,  was  very  appropriate.  My  father  held  this  office 
for  five  years  and  greatly  enjoyed  the  opportunities  it 
gave  him  of  making  friends  among  the  members,  many 
of  whom,  from  the  Speaker  downward,  were  warmly 
attached  to  their  Chaplain. 


ST.  MARGARET'S,  WESTMINSTER  233 


On  being  appointed  Archdeacon  of  Westminster  in 
1883,  he  wrote  thus  to  his  friend,  Archdeacon  Vesey  :  — 

"17  Dean's  Yard,  Westminster,  April  28. 

"  My  dear  Vesey  :  It  was  the  greatest  pleasure  to 
hear  from  you.  How  odd  is  one's  destiny.  Here  I  am 
stranded  —  like  a  desolate  wreck  on  the  lonely  shore ! 
in  a  title  which  of  all  others  I  could  most  loudly  have 
declared  I  should  never  possess,  and  which  seems  to  me 
of  all  others  to  suit  me  least !  No  emoluments,  and  no 
duties,  except  Ruri-decanal.  Certainly  no  gaiters  or 
shovel-hat  —  father  of  cooking  pots  !  only  an  apron  on 
grand  occasions.  My  little  granddaughter  asks  whether 
I  shall  carry  crumbs  in  it  to  the  sparrows  ?  and  whether 
it  will  be  as  pretty  as  mother's  lawn-tennis  apron  ?  I 
reply  that  I  shall  have  it  black,  because  it  saves  wash- 
ing. Mrs.  Farrar  won't  let  me  stir  about  any  change  of 
dress  till  I  have  consulted  you.  Tell  me  ought  one, 
when  archidiaconally  dressed  in  an  evening,  to  wear 
apron,  silk  stockings,  knee-breeches,  and  shoes  with 
silver  buckles  ?    I  am  as  ignorant  as  a  babe. 

"  I  am  very  glad  that  you  like  '  My  Object  in  Life.' 
"  Yours  very  affectionately, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST 

Of  my  father  as  a  parish  priest  three  of  his  former 
curates,  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Montgomery,  the  Rev. 
W.  E.  Sims,  Vicar  of  Aigburth,  Liverpool,  and  the  Rev. 
W.  J.  Sommerville,  Rector  of  St.  George  the  Martyr, 
Southwark,  testify  in  the  present  chapter ;  my  brother, 
the  Rev.  Eric  Maurice  Farrar,  Vicar  of  St.  John's, 
Hoxton,  also  a  former  curate,  writes  of  his  temperance 
work.  To  these  testimonies  I  need  not  add.  They 
afford  convincing  proof  that  the  man  who  was  known  to 
the  world  as  a  great  preacher,  a  profound  scholar,  and  a 
man  of  unparalleled  literary  activity,  was  at  the  same 
time  the  energetic  and  efficient  ruler  of  one  of  the  best- 
organised  parishes  in  London.  From  time  to  time 
charming  "  At  Homes,"  to  which  every  grade  of  parish 
worker  was  welcomed  and  truly  made  to  feel  "at  home" 
gave  a  concrete  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  loyal  and 
hearty  devotion,  which  knit  together  the  pastor  and  his 
flock.  These  cheerful  and  eminently  social  parish  gath- 
erings were  known  in  the  family  as  "  The  Herrings,"  and 
certainly  were  somewhat  densely  packed.  In  reference 
to  parish  work,  my  father  was  wont  humorously  to 
allude  to  himself,  his  wife,  his  daughters,  and  the  curates 
respectively,  as  "the  Rector,  the  Director,  the  Miss  Di- 
rectors, and  the  Correctors." 

234 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  235 


Bishop  Montgomery  writes  :  — 

"When  Canon  Farrar  came  to  Westminster  in  1876 
he  had  had  no  experience  of  the  science  of  parish  work. 
It  is  a  science,  and  one  in  which  growth  is  always  pos- 
sible, for  it  is  a  little  world  to  be  governed,  which  includes 
every  sort  of  character  and  problem ;  and  unless  a  man 
is  ever  pondering,  he  is  likely  to  discover  one  day  that 
he  has  omitted  even  to  think  of  his  whole  classes  of 
parishioners  in  any  complete  sense :  for  example,  all 
the  publicans  in  the  parish,  or  the  servants,  or  the 
young  men  lodgers,  or  the  cabbies,  or  the  police. 

"As  almost  the  first  of  the  Canon's  new  curates,  I 
strongly  advised  him  to  leave  the  details  of  parish  work 
to  us,  to  whom  it  was  a  familiar  science,  and  of  course  to 
the  large  band  of  workers  under  us.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  Canon  was  not  brought  to  Westminster  for 
the  parish  work,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  Abbey  and  of 
St.  Margaret's  pulpit,  as  a  factor  in  the  religious  life  of 
London.  Upon  the  whole,  the  Rector  accepted  this 
position,  whilst  he  kept  himself  in  constant  touch  with 
parish  work,  and  himself  took  part  in  certain  work ;  for 
example,  he  regularly  taught  for  some  years  in  the 
schools,  those  schools  to  which  he  was  so  deeply 
attached,  headed  as  they  were  by  the  remarkable  man 
who  was  known  and  loved  and  trusted  by  every  one  con- 
nected with  the  parish  and  the  church.  The  Rector, 
with  his  eager  and  sympathetic  nature,  visited  of  course 
to  a  certain  extent.  Ere  long  he  encountered  an  expe- 
rience novel  to  him,  but  familiar  to  us  who  had  grad- 
uated in  the  school  of  parish  life.  He  called  one  day 
at  the  house  of  a  parishioner,  about  whom  it  might  be 
said  that  he  was  suffering  from  '  over-exertion  in  drink.' 
The  caller  was  dismissed  with  contumely.  It  was  long 
before  the  dear  Canon  recovered  from  the  shock,  and  I 


236  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


suppose  we  young  fellows  laughed,  and  begged  him  all 
the  more  earnestly  to  reserve  himself  for  those  who 
called  for  him,  whilst  we  did  that  rougher  work  for 
which  our  more  brutal  natures  were  better  fitted. 

"  Rough  it  was  indeed  in  those  days  in  part.  Old  Pye 
Street  still  stood.  I  think  it  would  have  been  difficult 
to  have  found  a  spot  more  full  of  crime.  A  lay  reader 
of  ours  knew  London  life,  and  had  seen  a  house  in  that 
street  more  than  once  strewn  with  silver  plate.  To  him 
it  was  '  pewter.'  He  was  no  detective,  and  could  never 
have  shown  his  face  there  if  he  had  given  information. 
The  whole  street  drank  hard  whilst  such  plunder  lasted. 
One  case  which  came  under  my  own  experience' may  be 
of  interest  as  an  instance  of  low  life  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Abbey.  I  received  a  message  one  day  to  admin- 
ister Holy  Communion  to  a  dying  girl  in  Pye  Street. 
She  was  in  the  last  stages  of  consumption,  and  her  story 
was  to  the  effect  that  her  husband  lived  on  her  wages, 
which  he  forced  her  to  obtain  by  a  life  of  sin.  Some 
memory  of  her  childhood  made  her  ask  for  the  Sacra- 
ment before  she  died,  more  sinned  against  than  sinning. 

"  It  was  a  case  for  giving  what  she  asked  for  without 
overmuch  examination.  She  summed  up  her  repentance 
in  one  sentence :  '  I  have  worked  very  hard,  and  I  am 
very  tired.'  The  husband  was  playing  dominoes  with  a 
companion  whilst  his  wife  was  dying  behind  a  screen. 
I  did  what  I  could  to  make  all  decent  and  in  order 
behind  the  screen  whilst  I  gave  her  the  Sacrament. 
The  game,  however,  was  not  intermitted. 

"  But  the  transformation  of  St.  Margaret's,  both  as  a 
building  and  as  a  spiritual  force,  was  the  crown  of  the 
Canon's  work  as  Rector.  It  is  no  derogation  to  the 
earnest  men  who  were  in  power  in  the  parish  before  him 
to  say  that  Canon  Farrar  revolutionised  the  church  from 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  237 


every  point  of  view.  It  was  simply  that  the  old  order 
changed.  No  one  who  enters  the  church  now  can  realise 
what  it  was  in  1876,  with  the  hideous  galleries  blocking 
the  windows,  the  'three-decker'  with  the  dirty  velvet 
cushion  (the  special  aversion  of  the  new  Rector),  and 
the  general  appearance  of  neglect  caused  by  the  squalid 
appointments  of  the  church.  With  characteristic  energy 
he  determined  to  sweep  the  place  clean,  whatever  the 
cost  might  be.  He  put  all  his  tremendous  force  into 
his  appeals :  his  wonderful  voice  rang  through  the 
building  pleading  for  the  worthy  restoration  of  a  build- 
ing scarcely  inferior  to  any  in  London  for  historic 
interest.  The  congregations  were  of  course  enormous. 
Constantly  those  who  could  not  gain  admittance  betook 
themselves  to  the  Abbey  instead.  The  House  of  Com- 
mons seats  (for  it  is  the  church  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons) were  filled.  Americans  made  it  a  point  to 
worship,  not  only  in  the  Abbey,  but  also  to  listen 
to  Canon  Farrar  in  his  parish  church.  Soon  a  large 
choir  was  formed,  homely  in  one  sense,  a  truly  parochial 
choir,  composed  of  men  who  were  never  absent,  and 
whose  numbers  were  only  limited  by  the  space  in  the 
chancel.  The  sidesmen  and  churchwardens  never 
failed  to  be  present,  and  were  hard-worked  officials  in 
their  attempts  to  cope  with  eager  throngs  collected  from 
all  parts  of  London,  and  indeed  of  the  world.  I  have 
seen  the  church  so  full,  again  and  again,  that  it  was 
almost  a  painful  sight.  To  many  of  us  it  has  seemed 
that  the  Rector's  ministry  in  his  own  church  was  almost 
a  greater  thing  than  his  preaching  in  the  Abbey.  In 
the  parish  church  his  preaching  had  a  more  homely 
note.  He  was  addressing  his  own  people,  and  his 
sermons  were  all  the  more  helpful  to  earnest-going 
people  because  they  were  not  quite  so  much  tours  de 


238  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


force.  Thousands  came  to  be  fed  by  a  man  who  believed 
in  righteousness,  and  was  not  afraid  of  thundering 
against  those  who  did  not.  Upon  the  whole  I  think  his 
most  helpful  sermons  were  those  which  explained  a  book 
of  the  Bible  in  its  broad  outlines.  A  sermon  on  the 
Book  of  Job  haunts  me  to-day.  Equally  effective  were 
his  sketches  of  men  and  women,  whether  in  the  Bible  or 
outside  of  it.  Indeed  I  remember  the  feeling  that  passed 
through  the  congregation  one  Sunday  evening  when  he 
spoke  of  a  Frenchman  named  Arouet  and  of  his  public 
spirit,  and  then  after  a  thrilling  pause  reminded  them 
that  he  was  speaking  of  Voltaire.  No  one  can  doubt 
that  a  very  deep  and  beneficent  influence  was  exerted 
on  broad  Christian  lines  by  the  Rector  of  St.  Margaret's, 
an  influence  felt  by  thousands  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Voice,  manner,  and  matter,  all  combined  to  make  men 
ready  to  go  back  and  do  a  better  week's  work  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Rector's  sermon. 

"The  church  was  shut  for  about  a  year,  while  the 
work  of  restoration  went  on  under  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  and 
a  distinguished  committee.  Meanwhile  the  congrega- 
tion worshipped  in  the  Chapter  House,  lent  by  the 
Dean  and  Chapter ;  and  when  the  work  was  nearly  com- 
pleted it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  it  was  the  same 
building.  A  little  girl,  upon  first  seeing  the  effect, 
exclaimed,  'Why,  mother,  this  is  heaven.'  Not  much 
of  great  importance  was  discovered  during  the  restora- 
tion. I  remember  spending  an  evening  with  the  Abbey 
clerk  of  works  in  a  vault  under  the  altar,  trying  to  find 
Raleigh's  head,  but  without  success. 

"  One  is  inclined  to  linger  lovingly  over  the  affection- 
ate parish  life  of  that  period.  There  was  no  particle  of 
disunion ;  money  was  forthcoming  for  every  purpose. 
Every  worker  seemed  to  consider  that  there  was  no 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  239 


parish  like  St.  Margaret's.  The  yearly  reunions  of  old 
boys,  of  churchworkers,  of  every  sort  of  parish  organi- 
sation, were  charming.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  omit  (how- 
ever much  she  might  desire  it)  some  allusion  to  the 
conspicuous,  but  inobtrusive,  part  taken  by  the  Rector's 
wife  in  every  parish  movement.  Those  who  were  there 
in  those  days  can  alone  know  what  it  meant.  The 
Rector  was,  I  think,  the  first  to  allow  that  one  depart- 
ment at  least  was  better  in  his  wife's  hands  than  in  his 
own.  It  is  still  mirth-provoking  to  recall  the  subject 
of  parish  accounts  during  the  first  few  months  of  the 
Rector's  reign.  Was  it  not  the  duty  of  the  Rector  to 
keep  the  parish  accounts  himself  ?  Could  a  distinguished 
Head-master  and  scholar  not  cope  with  so  small  a  matter 
as  that  ?  It  was  but  a  short  time  to  the  end  of  the 
year,  and  we  awaited  the  result  with  bated  breath.  At 
length,  about  Christmas  time,  the  moment  came  when 
the  Rector's  balance-sheet  must  be  prepared.  It  was 
an  occasion  not  to  be  forgotten  when  the  distinguished 
scholar  produced  a  sheet  of  paper  scored  all  over,  and 
crossed  with  figures,  which  represented  the  accounts  of 
numerous  organisations. 

"'My  dear,  I  can't  quite  make  these  accounts  come 
straight.' 

"  I  do  not  think  any  human  being  ever  made  anything 
out  of  them.  It  was  a  day  of  laughter,  tender  and  over- 
flowing. 

"The  Rector's  wife  after  this  took  charge,  with 
boundless  success. 

"  Parish  life  is  a  prosaic  subject  to  the  public.  But 
it  means  a  great  deal  to  those  who  find  in  it  their  little 
world,  and  a  very  happy,  human,  and  useful  world. 
Some  of  us  think  that  the  St.  Margaret's  career  of  Canon 
Farrar  contains  the  brightest  and  most  permanently 


240  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


useful  portion  of  his  life  after  he  left  Marlborough,  and 
that  no  place  is  so  fitted  for  a  memorial  of  him  as  his 
parish  church." 

The  Rev.  W.  E.  Sims  writes  :  — 

"  The  career  of  a  parish  priest  whose  days  are  passed 
in  ministering  to  the  needs  of  the  people  committed  to 
his  care,  and  who  finds  his  reward  in  the  'joy  of  doing 
good,'  whatever  may  be  its  real  intrinsic  value,  affords 
perhaps  little  that  is  interesting  to  the  general  reader. 
Its  success  is  the  result  of  diligent  attention  to  details 
that  viewed  separately  seem  to  be  trifles,  and  although 
'  perfection  is  no  trifle '  the  consideration  of  multifari- 
ous items  making  up  'the  common  round,  the  daily 
task,'  is  apt  to  be  tedious.  The  annals  of  a  parish  are 
seldom  rich  in  romantic  incident,  and  a  plain  unvarnished 
tale  of  industrious  devotion  to  simple  duties  lacks  force 
in  its  appeal  to  the  imagination.  And  yet  no  account 
of  Dr.  Farrar  would  be  complete  that  left  out  of  sight  his 
labours  as  Rector  of  St.  Margaret's  for  the  long  period 
of  nineteen  years.  The  world  knows  that  he  was  an 
accomplished  scholar,  a  brilliant  writer,  and  a  preacher 
of  prophetic  power,  but  only  those  who  were  brought 
into  close  association  with  him  at  Westminster  are 
fully  aware  of  the  influence  that  he  exercised  in  the  less 
conspicuous  sphere  of  a  pastor.  It  is  no  exaggeration 
and  implies  no  adverse  reflection  upon  his  predecessors 
to  say  that  he  completely  changed  the  conception  of 
parochial  work  that  prevailed  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mar- 
garet's, and  made  a  church,  that  probably  had  been  saved 
from  demolition  chiefly  on  account  of  its  historical 
associations,  the  centre  of  an  active  and  vigorous  reli- 
gious life.  His  fame  as  an  orator  and  an  author  whose 
name  was  '  a  household  word '  attracted  immense  con- 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  241 


gregations  with  the  result  that  ample  means  were  found 
for  the  prosecution  of  enterprises,  having  as  their  object 
the  welfare  of  the  parishioners,  that  were  impossible 
under  any  previous  regime.  Nor  was  material  provi- 
sion for  the  efficient  conduct  of  parochial  organisations 
the  only,  or  chief,  outcome  of  the  Rector's  efforts.  He 
possessed  to  a  remarkable  degree  the  power  of  com- 
municating his  own  enthusiasm  to  others,  and  gathered 
round  himself  a  large,  devoted,  and  ever  increasing  band 
of  workers,  both  men  and  women,  who  derived  inspira- 
tion from  his  teaching  and  gave  practical  effect  to 
schemes  suggested  for  the  social  amelioration  or  reli- 
gious improvement  of  the  people.  It  was  Dr.  Farrar's 
policy  to  allow  his  colleagues  and  other  helpers  an 
absolute  freedom  in  the  management  of  these  various 
agencies  when  once  the  particular  object  had  been 
approved  and  the  proposed  method  of  attaining  it  ex- 
plained. There  was  no  unnecessary  interference,  but 
always  the  keenest  interest  and  sympathy.  Easily  ac- 
cessible at  all  times  the  Rector  would  lay  aside  the 
unfinished  sermon  or  book  to  listen  to  reports  of  the 
progress  of  parish  affairs,  and  apparently  the  more 
minutely  they  descended  into  details,  the  greater  satis- 
faction they  gave  him.  His  wonderfully  retentive  mem- 
ory, so  remarkably  displayed  in  public  utterances,  enabled 
him  also  to  retain  a  multiplicity  of  particulars  respect- 
ing the  organisations  of  the  parish  and  the  circumstances 
of  individual  parishioners,  astonishing  to  those  who 
thought  not  unnaturally  that  his  incessant  literary  activ- 
ities and  the  many  important  claims  made  upon  his 
time  and  energy  as  Canon  of  Westminster  as  well  as 
Rector  of  the  parish,  must  leave  but  little  leisure  for  the 
comparatively  minor  duties  that  engross  the  attention 
of  less  busy  men.    But  Dr.  Farrar  made  it  a  regular 


242  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


part  of  his  work  to  familiarise  himself  with  everything 
that  was  going  on.  He  required  his  colleagues  to  report 
all  cases  of  sickness  or  distress,  and  presided  regularly 
at  the  meetings  of  district  visitors,  where  the  circum- 
stances of  the  infirm  or  indigent  were  fully  discussed 
with  a  view  to  their  relief ;  and  he  frequently  requested 
the  present  writer  to  let  him  know  of  any  persons  in 
affliction  who  might  be  glad  of  a  personal  visit  of  sym- 
pathy or  condolence.  Systematic  house-to-house  visita- 
tion had,  of  course,  to  be  left  to  the  curates ;  but  where 
the  Rector's  presence  could  afford  any  comfort,  he  was 
always  ready  to  go.  He  'reckoned  nothing  human 
alien  to  himself.'  When  Dr.  Farrar  was  appointed,  the 
parish  of  St.  Margaret's  presented  many  features  of 
unusual  difficulty.  The  church,  built  in  close  proximity 
to  the  Abbey,  was  scantily  attended,  it  badly  needed 
restoration,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  churchyard  that 
was  an  eyesore  to  the  neighbourhood.  The  new  Rector 
immediately  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  remedying 
this  unsatisfactory  state  of  things.  His  sermons  at 
once  attracted  enormous  and  influential  congregations, 
the  services  were  improved,  the  church  was  completely 
restored  and  greatly  beautified  at  a  cost  of  .£30,000,  and 
the  adjacent  desert  of  dilapidated  tombstones  was  con- 
verted into  a  pleasant  open  space,  with  wide  approaches 
to  St.  Margaret's  and  the  Abbey.  What  took  place  in 
and  around  the  church  was  typical  of  what  happened 
also  in  the  parish. 

"A  large  part  of  the  area  was  occupied  by  the  palace 
of  Westminster,  palatial  government  buildings,  and  pub- 
lic or  private  offices.  In  close  vicinity  to  these  were 
mean  streets,  inhabited  chiefly  by  the  very  poor.  As  the 
march  of  improvement  gradually  cleared  some  of  these 
away,  they  were  replaced  by  huge  blocks  of  highly 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  243 


rented  flats,  occupied  largely  by  people  with  homes 
elsewhere  who  hardly  recognise  any  responsibility 
towards  the  district  of  their  temporary  sojourn.  No 
class  of  parishioners  is  more  inaccessible  to  the  clergy, 
as  a  rule,  than  the  inhabitants  of  flats.  It  would  seem 
speculatively  improbable  that  in  a  parish  such  as  I 
have  described  any  great  work  could  be  done  out- 
side the  walls  of  the  church.  And  yet  before  long 
it  had  become  the  home  of  almost  every  kind  of  paro- 
chial organisation.  At  Dartmouth  Hall,  a  disused  Dis- 
senting meeting-house  situated  in  a  street  at  that  time 
notorious  for  poverty  and  vice,  and  acquired  by  the 
Rector  for  that  purpose,  there  were  established  mis- 
sion services,  Sunday-schools,  clubs  for  working-men 
and  working-women,  and  for  young  lads  and  girls, 
sewing  classes,  Bible  readings,  a  Band  of  Hope,  and 
popular  Saturday  evening  entertainments.  At  the  new 
mission  room  in  another  part  of  the  parish  there  were 
Sunday  services  for  children  and  infants,  Bible  classes, 
mothers'  meetings  on  two  days  in  the  week,  Girls' 
Friendly  Society  classes,  temperance  meetings  and 
concerts,  literary  and  scientific  lectures,  and  a  youths' 
Institute  furnished  with  a  gymnasium.  Classes  of  in- 
struction for  Sunday-school  teachers  were  held  in  the 
vestry  of  the  church  and  a  Bell  Ringers'  Society  met  in 
a  room  in  the  tower  under  the  belfry.  In  addition  to 
these  organisations  of  a  purely  parochial  character  large 
National  Schools,  fully  equipped  with  every  requisite  for 
the  work  of  education,  were  maintained  for  the  benefit 
of  the  children  of  the  neighbourhood  and  used  on  Sun- 
days for  religious  purposes.  In  all  these  agencies  the 
Rector  took  the  keenest  personal  interest.  He  presided 
invariably  at  meetings  of  the  managers  of  the  day 
schools.    He  visited  the  Sunday-schools.    He  lectured 


244  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


on  Dante,  Milton,  and  other  subjects  of  interest  before 
the  Literary  Society.  He  kept  himself  in  touch  with 
the  secretaries  and  treasurers,  the  teachers,  the  mem- 
bers of  various  committees,  the  choirmen  and  all  who  in 
any  way  helped  forward  the  work  of  St.  Margaret's. 
When  candidates  were  being  prepared  for  confirmation, 
it  was  his  rule  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  each  one 
individually  and  to  address  them  collectively  at  least 
once  a  week. 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  convey  to  a  reader  unfamiliar 
with  the  details  of  parish  life  an  idea  of  the  inces- 
sant labour  involved  in  these  manifold  duties.  A 
clergyman's  work  is  never  finished  :  at  the  beck  and 
call  of  all  who  need  his  services,  and  they  are  many ; 
the  victim  of  constant  interruptions,  with  a  correspon- 
dence larger  than  that  of  many  business  men,  —  Dr. 
Farrar  usually  wrote  about  twenty  letters  a  day,  —  with 
a  congeries  of  societies,  such  as  those  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made,  claiming  unremitting  attention  to 
maintain  their  efficiency,  for  all  clerical  experience 
proves  that,  however  zealous  an  incumbent's  helpers 
may  be,  these  organisations  cannot  be  kept  in  a  vigorous 
state  of  usefulness  without  much  personal  effort  and 
self-sacrifice.  When  we  consider  these  facts  and  re- 
member that  this  constant  daily  wear  and  tear  was 
maintained  during  all  those  nineteen  years  of  Dr.  Far- 
rar's  incumbency  of  St.  Margaret's,  it  becomes  a  matter 
of  astonishment  that,  amid  so  many  distractions,  he 
found  opportunity  for  the  preparation  of  sermons  that 
display  to  perhaps  a  greater  extent  than  any  contem- 
porary pulpit  discourses  the  fruits  of  culture,  and  the 
composition  of  works  that  have  attained  a  wider  celeb- 
rity than  was  supposed  to  be  possible  for  scholarly 
productions  in  the  province  of  theology.     But  Dr. 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  245 


Farrar  worked  in  the  spirit  of  that  line  of  Goethe's 
'  unhasting,  unresting,'  and,  because  he  was  never  idle, 
found  time  for  everything.  He  usually  wrote  standing 
at  a  table  desk  near  the  window  of  his  study  which 
overlooked  Dean's  Yard,  and  there  he  might  be  found 
immersed  in  literary  production  or  parochial  business 
at  almost  any  hour  of  the  day.  Sometimes  during  the 
last  few  years  in  Westminster  he  felt  that  the  respon- 
sibilities attached  to  the  maintenance  of  a  highly 
organised  parish,  in  combination  with  his  other  work, 
involved  too  great  a  strain  ;  but  he  never  spared  himself, 
and  even  when  absent  during  his  autumn  holiday  ex- 
pected to  hear  from  the  curate  left  in  charge  detailed 
narratives  of  all  that  was  going  on  in  his  beloved  St. 
Margaret's,  the  church  and  parish  that  he  raised  by  his 
splendid  abilities  and  untiring  energy  from  a  position  of 
comparative  insignificance  to  one  of  commanding  influ- 
ence and  widespread  renown. 

"Aigburth  Vicarage,  September,  1903." 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Sommerville  writes:  — 
"  During  the  whole  of  Dr.  Farrar's  life  at  Westmin- 
ster, St.  Margaret's  was  thronged  from  Sunday  to  Sun- 
day. When  he  himself  was  not  preaching  on  a  Sunday 
morning,  he  gave  his  people  opportunities  of  hearing 
all  the  greatest  preachers  in  the  church.  Sunday  by 
Sunday,  Bishops,  Canons,  Deans,  occupied  the  famous 
pulpit  when  the  Rector  himself  was  absent. 

"  Practically  all  the  distinguished  preachers  in  the 
church,  between  1875  and  1895,  preached  at  some  time 
or  other  in  St.  Margaret's.  Surely  never  was  congrega- 
tion so  favoured,  and  never  did  curates  have  so  much 
reason  for  thankfulness. 


246 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  But  there  was  another  side  to  his  character.  The 
world  knew  him  as  the  great  preacher,  writer,  and 
orator ;  but  we  who  served  under  him  knew  him  as  our 
inspired  leader,  guide,  counsellor,  and  friend. 

"  We  knew  him  in  the  humbler  role  of  a  parish  clergy- 
man, and  never  did  a  parish  have  a  more  faithful  and 
earnest  pastor  than  he.  Dr.  Farrar  worked  for  his 
people,  thought  of  them,  and  prayed  for  and  with 
them. 

"  In  all  the  various  details  of  parochial  life  he  took 
the  keenest  interest.  Sunday  by  Sunday,  when  he  was 
not  in  residence  in  the  Abbey,  he  was  to  be  found  open- 
ing the  Sunday-schools  (which  he  rightly  regarded  as 
the  great  bulwark  of  the  church)  like  the  humblest 
curate  in  the  land.  We  knew,  too,  how  keen  was  the 
interest  he  took  in  the  mission  services,  clubs,  and 
guilds  of  the  parish,  and  how  ready  he  always  was  to 
visit  a  dying  parishioner.  I  never  knew  the  possibil- 
ities and  beauty  of  extempore  prayer  until  I  knelt  with 
him  one  day  by  the  bedside  of  a  dying  man  in  a  small 
street  close  to  the  Aquarium. 

"  But  perhaps  Dr.  Farrar  was  seen  at  his  best  in  the 
preparation  for  confirmation.  Who  that  ever  heard 
those  addresses  on  the  six  Saturday  evenings  after 
Easter  will  be  likely  to  forget  them  ?  The  scholar, 
preacher,  and  writer  were  laid  aside,  and  one  saw  only 
the  saint  of  God  yearning  over  those  young  soldiers  of 
Jesus,  and  desirous,  above  all,  of  leading  them  into  the 
paths  of  righteousness.  I  shall  never  forget  the  last 
night  of  his  ministry  at  St.  Margaret's.  He  had  in- 
vited all  the  young  people  who  had  been  confirmed  under 
his  ministry  to  join  with  him  in  the  Lord's  Supper 
after  evening  prayer.  In  spite  of  the  almost  tropical 
downpour  of  rain,  nearly  six  hundred  young  men  and 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  247 


women  responded  to  his  invitation,  and  joined  with  him 
in  the  great  sacrament  of  Christ's  love.  I  have  seen 
letters  from  many  young  men  and  young  women  in 
business  addressed  to  him,  thankfully  acknowledging 
the  blessings  they  had  derived  from  his  influence  and 
teaching  ;  and  this,  after  all,  is  the  true  test  of  min- 
isterial success. 

"  Nor  were  his  activities  confined  within  the  borders 
of  his  own  parish.  He  was  a  devout  and  loyal  member 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  never  had  the  slightest 
inclination  to  attach  himself  to  any  other  communion  ; 
but  his  great  heart  beat  in  sympathy  with  all  forms  of 
religious  activity.  No  good  cause  ever  appealed  to  him 
in  vain.  In  everything  connected  with  social  ameliora- 
tion he  took  the  keenest  interest. 

"  The  temperance  cause  never  had  a  more  earnest  ad- 
vocate than  he.  No  one  ever  more  strongly  denounced 
the  squalor  and  degradation  in  which  so  many  of  the 
poor  were  compelled  to  live.  I  have  been  with  him  on 
Sunday  afternoons  to  large  gatherings  of  men  in  East 
and  North  London,  where  he  spoke  on  such  questions 
as  purity  or  home  life  with  marvellous  power,  and  on 
week  nights  to  missionary  gatherings,  temperance  dem- 
onstrations, large  assemblies  of  Boys'  Brigades,  in  all  of 
which  he  was  equally  at  home.  St.  Margaret's,  West- 
minster, was  indeed  a  Rational  Church,  and  worthy  of 
its  great  position  as  the  '  Parish  Church  of  the  House 
of  Commons'  during  his  time.  He  opened  its  doors 
to  General  Booth  and  the  Salvation  Army,  to  the 
Church  Army,  to  Volunteers,  to  almost  every  society 
doing  good  work  in  the  church  itself  or  without  it,  to 
Dr.  Barnardo  and  Dr.  Stevenson  and  their  orphanages, 
and  last  but  not  least,  to  that  great  charity  for  the 
blind,  the  Royal  Normal  College  at  Norwood.    This  is 


248  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


surely  what  one  means  by  Catholic  in  the  highest  sense, 
not  the  obstinate  clinging  to,  or  revival  of,  some  puerile 
ceremony  or  custom,  but  the  frank  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  Christian  Church  is  the  sum  of  all  those 
who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christian,  the  blessed 
company  of  all  faithful  people." 

The  Rev.  Eric  Farrar  writes  :  — 

"  No  biography  of  Frederic  William  Farrar  would  be 
complete  without  some  allusion,  however  brief,  to  his 
temperance  work.  Many,  especially  working-men,  who 
knew  him  not  as  the  author  of  'The  Life  of  Christ,' 
knew  him  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent  temperance 
preachers  of  the  day.  During  his  University,  Harrow, 
and  Marlborough  career  he  was  not  convinced  of  the 
necessity  for  total  abstinence ;  but  as  soon  as  he  came 
to  London  his  labours  as  a  parish  clergyman,  where  he 
was  constantly  confronted  with  the  ravages  of  the 
'  Drink  Demon,'  caused  him  to  take  an  active  interest 
in  the  temperance  cause.  He  signed  the  pledge  and 
preached  his  first  temperance  sermon  in  Westminster 
Abbey  on  October  8,  1876. 

"  In  an  address  delivered  in  New  York  he  himself  gave 
some  of  the  reasons  which  induced  him  to  become  a 
total  abstainer. 

"  ' 1  first  became  a  total  abstainer  because  I  was  easily 
convinced  that  the  use  of  alcohol  was  not  a  necessity. 
I  saw,  for  instance,  that  whole  nations  had  not  only 
lived  without  it,  but  had  flourished  without  it.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  human  race  had  existed  and  had  flourished 
a  considerable  time  before  it  was  discovered.' 

"  Other  reasons  were  because  he  saw  in  the  carefully 
prepared  statistics  of  insurance  societies  that  total  ab- 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST  249 


stinence  as  an  indisputable  fact  contributed  to  longev- 
ity ;  that  greater  feats  of  strength  and  endurance  were 
achieved  without  it  than  with  it ;  that  a  great  number  of 
our  most  eminent  physicians  had  declared  most  positively 
that,  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases,  alcohol  was  a 
prolific  source  of  disease,  even  in  those  who  took  it  in 
quantities  conventionally  deemed  moderate. 

"  It  was  then  because  Dr.  Farrar  believed  that  '  total 
abstinence  would  tend  to  simplicity  of  life,  to  health,  to 
strength  of  body,  to  clearness  of  mind,  and  to  length  of 
days,'  that  he  decided  it  was  a  desirable  thing  for  him, 
at  any  rate,  to  give  up  alcohol  altogether. 

"But  to  this  must  be  added  one  more  reason,  which, 
more  than  all  else,  made  Dr.  Farrar,  as  it  has  made  thou- 
sands, a  total  abstainer.  It  was  pity,  sheer  human  pity. 
In  his  ministry  at  St.  Margaret's,  under  the  shadow  of 
the  great  Abbey  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  he  wit- 
nessed the  effects  of  alcohol.  He  was  '  brought  into 
almost  daily  contact  with  or  cognisance  of  tragedies  the 
most  brutal,  miseries  the  most  unspeakable,  the  depths 
of  Satan,  the  horrible  degradation  of  womanhood,  the 
death  and  anguish  of  children,  the  catastrophe  and 
devastation  of  homes,  the  abnormal  debasement  of  souls, 
the  chronic  and  revolting  squalor,  the  unspeakable,  im- 
measurable, and  apparently  illimitable  arrears  of  human 
misery  in  its  most  unmitigated  forms,  which  have  their 
source  and  origin  in  the  temptations  forced  upon  the 
poor  by  the  shameless  multiplication  of  gin-shops  and 
public  houses.'  He  saw  that  public  houses  were,  'to 
many  of  those  for  whom  Christ  died,  what  the  flames 
of  the  guttering  rushlight  are  to  the  wretched  moths 
who  flutter  about  them  and  through  them  and  into 
them,  until  they  are  first  singed  and  maimed,  then 
shrivelled  and  scorched  to  death.'    It  was  the  deep 


250 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


pity,  then,  Dr.  Farrar  felt  for  all  the  slaves  and  victims 
of  strong  drink,  that  not  only  made  him  an  abstainer, 
but  caused  him  to  speak  out  with  impassioned  eloquence, 
endeavouring  to  arouse  others  to  their  duty  towards  the 
victims  of  intemperance. 

"  Till  almost  the  last  year  of  his  life,  in  spite  of  many 
other  laborious  works  and  pressing  duties,  he  threw 
himself  into  the  cause.  In  the  pulpit  and  on  the  plat- 
form, he  made  his  voice  heard  with  no  uncertain  sound. 
He  spoke  to  mass  meetings  of  men  on  the  subject  in 
nearly  all  the  large  towns  of  England.  He  was  made  a 
vice-president  of  the  Church  of  England  Temperance 
Society,  of  the  United  Kingdom  Alliance,  and  of  the 
Temperance  League.  Many  of  his  sermons  were  pub- 
lished by  these  and  kindred  societies,  the  most  remark- 
able of  which  are  perhaps  '  The  Vow  of  the  Nazarite,' 
'A  Nation's  Curse,'  'The  Shadow  of  Civilisation,' 
and  'Individual  Responsibility.'  His  controversy  with 
Lord  Bramwell  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  was  not  only 
exceedingly  powerful,  but  also  most  useful  in  strength- 
ening the  hands  of  abstainers.  He  counted  it  an 
honour  and  a  privilege  to  have  been  chosen  to  deliver 
the  first  Lees  and  Raper  Memorial  Lecture.  On  this 
occasion  Archbishop  Temple  presided  and  Archdeacon 
Wilberforce,  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson,  and  many  other  dis- 
tinguished people  were  on  the  platform.  It  was  a  great 
occasion,  and  Dr.  Farrar  —  in  spite  of  the  weakness 
which  was  even  then  growing  upon  him — fully  sus- 
tained his  reputation.  He  lectured  for  an  hour  and 
twenty  minutes,  gathering  up  into  one  terrible  in- 
dictment facts  of  every  kind  concerning  the  evils  of 
the  drink  traffic.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  lecture,  the 
archbishop  described  Dr.  Farrar  as  a  man  '  with  the 
gift  of  using  such  language  as  it  was  delightful  to 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST 


251 


hear  and  difficult  to  forget.'  The  lecture  has  since 
been  published  in  book  form  and  constitutes  a  repertory 
of  apt  and  high-class  temperance  quotations. 

"But  though  an  impassioned  and  fervent  temperance 
preacher  and  speaker,  Dr.  Farrar  was  no  fanatic.  He 
never  asserted  anything  so  wrong  and  so  foolish  as  that 
it  was  a  sin  to  drink  wine  ;  nor  was  he  ever  so  unchari- 
table as  to  pronounce  a  syllable  of  condemnation  against 
moderate  drinkers.  Though  he  encouraged  all  his 
family  to  abstain,  there  was  always  wine  at  hand  for 
guests  who  desired  it,  and  he  clearly  saw  and  taught 
that  the  question  of  abstinence  or  non-abstinence  was 
one  which  could  be  only  settled  by  the  individual  con- 
science and  in  connection  with  individual  circumstances. 

"  With  regard  to  the  political  aspect  of  the  question  Dr. 
Farrar,  though  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  distinctively 
American  mode  of  prohibition,  gave  his  preference  to 
the  more  English  policy  of  local  option  and  direct 
veto.  Long  before  Mr.  Ritchie  and  Mr.  Goschen  so 
vainly  raised  the  question  of  compensation  (in  1888  and 
1890),  Dr.  Farrar  declared  :  'You  might  as  well  talk  of 
protecting  the  vested  interests  of  a  cancer  as  protecting 
the  existing  conditions  of  a  system  which,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  president  of  one  of  its  own  Defence 
Leagues,  gives  us  at  least  64,000  too  many  out  of  our 
107,337  licensed  houses,  of  which  he  describes  some  as 
seething  hells  of  vice,  immorality,  and  crime.'  Dr. 
Farrar  was  eager  for  temperance  legislation  and  used 
all  his  influence  in  this  direction,  believing  that  little 
could  be  done  to  overcome  England's  national  sin  with- 
out the  help  of  Parliament.  In  the  House  of  Commons 
he  was  often  present  on  the  occasion  of  temperance 
debates,  and  there  he  heard  Mr.  Gladstone  declare  that 
'  the  evils  wrought  by  drink  were  more  deadly  because 


252  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


more  continuous  than  the  three  great  historic  scourges 
of  war,  famine,  and  pestilence  combined.' 

"  On  his  death  the  temperance  press  unanimously  de- 
clared that  the  cause  had  lost  one  of  its  best  and  most 
persuasive  champions.  God  buries  His  workmen,  but 
continues  their  Work ;  and  though  dead,  Dr.  Farrar  will 
continue  to  speak  for  many  a  long  day,  until  it  may  be 
the  deepest  shadow  of  civilisation  has  given  way  to  the 
dawn  of  a  brighter  day." 

My  father's  beautiful  but  little  known  Teacher's  Hymn 
may  fitly  close  this  chapter. 

Soft  is  the  blush  of  dawn 

In  heaven's  serene  repose, 
And  bright  the  dewy  lustre  gleams 

Upon  the  opening  rose  ; 
But  clouds  may  dim  the  day, 

And  evening  skies  may  lower, 
The  dewdrop  vanisheth  away 

And  cankers  kill  the  flower. 

Sweet  as  the  dawn,  and  pure 

As  rose  in  early  dew, 
The  light  of  Innocence  doth  shine 

In  childhood's  heaven  of  blue; 
Oh,  never  may  that  light 

Be  quenched  in  cloudy  gloom ; 
Oh,  that  no  cankerworm  may  blight 

That  rose's  crimson  bloom ! 

The  mirth,  the  beauty  pass, 

We  do  not  bid  them  stay, 
We  ask  Thee  not,  dear  Lord,  to  keep 

Thy  blessed  griefs  away ; 
We  pray  that  sin  alone 

Be  conquered  by  Thy  grace, 
Nor  evil  in  the  heart  be  sown 

Thine  image  to  efface. 


THE  PARISH  PRIEST 


As  lilies  by  the  waves 

Thy  childhood  grew  to  man, 
In  loveliness  and  graciousness 

Thine  early  summers  ran ; 
So  may  Thy  children  grow 

To  be  for  ever  Thine, 
Till  onward  to  noon's  perfect  glow 

Their  golden  dawn  may  shine. 

And  oh!  to  us,  dear  Lord, 

May  grace  and  aid  be  given 
To  save  Thy  little  ones  for  Thee, 

And  guide  their  feet  to  heaven ; 
To  love,  as  Thou  didst  love, 

Their  tender  early  days, 
Till  in  Thy  Paradise  above 

They  join  our  song  of  praise. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE " 

These  twenty  years  at  Westminster  witnessed  the 
zenith  of  my  father's  power  and  reputation  as  a  preacher. 
His  sermons  preached  to  boys  at  Harrow  and  Marlbor- 
ough were  in  their  sphere  intensely  powerful  for  good, 
and  their  echoes  still  live  in  the  ears  of  many  of  his  old 
pupils  ;  but  his  influence  at  Westminster  was  national, 
and  his  title  to  rank  among  the  very  few  great  pulpit 
orators  of  the  Victorian  era  cannot  be  questioned. 

Some  critics  have  thought  that  Farrar's  style  was 
marred  at  times  by  a  certain  exuberance  of  diction,  and 
that  his  sermons  were  overloaded  with  poetical  imagery. 
There  is  perhaps  some  justice  in  the  criticism,  but  two 
facts  must  be  considered  in  mitigation,  if  mitigation  be 
needed.  The  sermons  were  delivered  in  the  routine  of 
an  exceptionally  busy  life  by  a  prophet  whose  mission  it 
was  to  preach  the  Kingdom  to  all  people,  and  to  as 
many  as  would  hear  him,  and  who  became  all  things  to 
all  men  that  he  might  by  all  means  save  some.  Certain 
great  pulpit  orators,  as  Liddon  and  Magee,  whose  out- 
put of  sermons  was  far  less  in  amount,  have  had  leisure 
to  prepare  discourses,  studied,  polished,  and  refined, 
which  may  have  been  finer  as  oratorical  efforts,  though 
hardly  richer  in  moral  and  spiritual  influence,  than  in- 
dividual sermons  of  Farrar's.  But  my  father,  it  must  be 
remembered,  never  aimed  at  the  reputation  of  an  orator  ; 
he  had  his  message  to  deliver,  and  could  not  stop  to  cull 

254 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  255 


phrases  or  deliberate  niceties  of  rhetoric.  His  eloquence 
was  unstudied,  and  if  unchastened,  his  style  was  at  any 
rate  absolutely  natural,  spontaneous,  and  sincere. 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  He  preached  to  his  own 
flock  always  once,  and  frequently  twice,  on  Sundays, 
and  his  great  kindness  of  heart  made  it  very  difficult  for 
him  to  say  "No  "  to  requests  to  preach  away  from  home 
during  the  week.  Indeed,  few  men  have  been  more  ready 
than  he  was  to  help  his  brother  clergy  when  appealed  to. 
I  am,  probably,  well  within  the  mark  when  I  compute  that 
he  preached  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  ser- 
mons every  year.  Up  to  the  eyes  in  pastoral  and  liter- 
ary work,  burdened  with  a  large  correspondence,  and 
never  shrinking  from  any  labour  that  presented  itself  to 
his  sensitive  conscience  as  a  duty,  he  was  seldom  able 
to  devote  more  than  three  or  four  hours  to  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  sermon.  Scant  leisure  was  his  to  prune  and 
polish,  and,  as  has  been  said,  "  The  ink  upon  the  paper 
was  often  damp  as  the  chimes  for  service  marked  time 
for  eager  multitudes."  These  sermons,  then,  were 
written  currente  calamo,  and  the  manuscripts  show  very 
few  erasures  ;  expression  was  easy  to  him  ;  he  poured 
out  his  ardent  soul  as  the  Spirit  gave  him  utterance, 
and  without  effort  lavished  from  the  rich  treasures  of 
his  memory  garnered  stores  of  poetic  illustration  and 
historic  parallel. 

Again,  the  wealth  of  poetic  imagery  which  en- 
riched and  embellished  his  sermons  has  been  held 
by  some  fastidious  critics  for  a  defect  in  style  :  this 
fault,  too,  if  fault  it  be,  was  at  least  absolutely  natural. 
It  may  be  safely  said  that  my  father  never  paused,  as 
do  some  preachers,  to  choose  a  quotation  which  should 
illustrate  his  meaning.  We  cannot  do  justice  to  this 
aspect  of  his  preaching  unless  we  try  to  realise  that 


256  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


quotation  with  him  was  entirely  spontaneous,  almost 
involuntary,  because  his  marvellous  memory  was  stored, 
nay,  saturated  with  passages  from  the  poets  which  had 
become,  as  it  were,  a  part  of  his  very  being,  and  which, 
when  the  appropriate  association  evoked  them,  came 
unbidden  to  his  lips.  To  quote  was  with  him  as  natural 
and  automatic  as  to  breathe,  and  even  those  florid  turns 
which  passed  for  mere  exuberance  of  diction  were  not 
seldom  unconscious  or  semiconscious  quotations  which 
the  sapient  critic  failed  to  recognise.  But  why  pause, 
after  all,  to  justify  these  purple  patches.  In  them  lay 
one  of  the  secrets  of  his  power  to  touch  the  heart.  He 
had  in  a  transcendent  degree  the  art  to  rivet  a  great 
moral  or  spiritual  truth  upon  the  memory  with  some 
passage  of  immortal  verse  which  should  remain  a 
KTrjua  e?  aei  long  after  the  echoes  of  the  sermon  had 
died  away.  Again,  with  what  a  flood  of  historic 
illustration  and  parallel  were  these  discourses  enriched 
and  fertilised !  Read,  for  example,  "  The  Witness  of 
History  to  Christ,"  the  Hulsean  Lectures  for  1870,  and 
you  cannot  fail  to  be  amazed  with  the  learning  and 
research  of  the  preacher,  yes,  but  even  more  with 
the  habit  of  mind  which  led  him  to  regard  all  history 
and  all  literature  as  so  many  witnesses  to  God,  and  to 
set  store  by  his  vast  knowledge  only  as  a  trust  to  be 
used  in  the  Master's  service. 

The  following  extract  from  a  newspaper  humorously 
illustrates  my  father's  prodigality  in  the  use  of  quota- 
tions. 

"  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  Dean  Farrar's  works 
know  that  they  swarm  with  all  manner  of  quotations, 
acknowledged  and  unacknowledged,  but  we  venture  to 
think  (says  the  Daily  News)  that  the  following  beats 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE "  257 


the  record :  In  the  course  of  the  two  sermons  that  he 
preached  at  Great  St.  Mary's,  Cambridge,  he  quoted 
twenty-three  Scriptural  phrases  or  texts,  excluding  para- 
phrases, and  used  altogether  upwards  of  eighty  different 
quotations.  An  analysis  will  be  read  with  curiosity. 
Dean  Farrar  has  four  Greek  quotations  in  original  — 
Pindar  'the  Greek  comedian,'  '  the  Greek  father,'  and  an 
unacknowledged  passage  ;  also  two  Greek  words  used 
by  St.  Luke,  and  Latin  quotations  in  the  original  from 
'  the  Roman  Poet,'  '  the  Roman  bard,'  '  the  gay  lyrist,' 
St.  Augustine,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  and  Orosius,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  inscriptions  on  Balliol  College  and  Lin- 
coln's Inn  and  such  flowers  of  speech  as  '  summum 
bonum  '  and  '  toto  ccelo,  toto  inferno.'  These  were,  no 
doubt,  introduced  out  of  compliment  to  a  University 
congregation. 

"  Some  score  of  sentences,  which  may  be  prose  or 
poetry,  are  found  in  the  two  sermons  within  quotation 
marks  and  without  their  source  being  stated.  Dean 
Farrar  quotes  poetry  without  mentioning  the  author 
(Shakespeare,  Tennyson,  etc.)  twelve  times  in  all — the 
total  amounting  to  forty-seven  lines.  He  also  quotes  '  a 
late  eminent  judge,'  'the  German  writer,'  'a  brutal 
onlooker,'  and  '  one  of  our  greatest  men  of  science.' 

"Dean  Farrar  quotes  from  and  mentions  by  name  the 
following  list,  which  is  worth  setting  out  after  the  man- 
ner of  all  records  — 

"  Christ  (three  passages)  St.  Francis  Xavier  (two  pas- 

David  sages,  Latin  and  English) 

Solomon  Marcus  Aurelius 

St.  Peter  '  Cieantha ' 

St.  Paul  Epictetus 
St.  John  Hermas 
St.  Luke  Pindar 
St.  Augustine  Pyrrho 


258  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Orosius  Milton  (four  passages) 

Leibnitz  Browning  (ditto) 

Amiel  (two  passages)  Byron  (twice) 

Von  Hartmann  Renan  (twice) 

Novalis  Wordsworth 
Schopenhauer  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury 

Salvator  Rosa  Emerson 
Henry  Smith  Ruskin 
William  Brown  (the  boy  martyr)  Thackeray 
Shakespeare  (two  passages  Sir  Fitzjames  Stephen 

acknowledged) 

After  this  it  savours  of  anti-climax  to  add  that  the 
preacher  also  alluded  by  name,  without  quoting  from,  to 
the  prophet  Isaiah,  Whitefield,  Augustus  Caesar,  Trajan, 
St.  Louis  of  France,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  author  of  the  '  Imitatio  Christi,'  Dives, 
Lazarus  (the  subject  of  miracle),  1  the  poor,  ugly  teacher 
whom  the  Greek  Pharisees  doomed  to  drink  hemlock,' 
Mary  (Queen),  Othello,  Desdemona,  Cordelia,  and  Pan. 
There  has  been  nothing  to  equal  this  since  Sir  John 
Lubbock  published  his  '  Pleasures  of  Life.' " 

The  wide  range  of  subjects  covered  by  his  sermons 
is  well  exemplified  in  a  volume  published  in  America 
under  the  title  "  Social  and  Present  Day  Questions." 
This  embraces  some  of  my  father's  deeply  interesting 
biographical  studies  —  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  General 
Grant,  General  Garfield,  Dean  Stanley,  Cardinal  New- 
man, Charles  Darwin,  John  Bright,  Garibaldi,  and  Count 
Leo  Tolstoy,  and  a  sermon  on  "  Biography  (The 
Teachers  of  Mankind),"  highly  characteristic  of  his 
method  and  style,  a  sermon  on  "Art"  to  which  I 
shall  recur  later,  and,  among  other  subjects,  sermons  on 
"  Social  Amelioration,"  "  National  Duties,"  "  National 
Perils,"  and  "The  Ideal  Citizen."    In  this  volume  is 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  259 


also  included  a  generous  tribute  to  the  national  char- 
acter of  the  Jews  and  an  appeal  against  the  stupid 
ferocities  of  the  Jtidenhetze  which  won  for  him  the 
gratitude  and  affection  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  that 
ancient  people. 

To  those  who  have  never  heard  him  preach  it  is  im- 
possible to  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  his  personality,  a 
magnetism  which  was  the  birthright  of  perfect  sincerity, 
intense  conviction,  and  utter  purity  of  heart,  or  to  de- 
scribe the  matchless  music  of  his  voice,  now  melodious 
and  even  as  a  flute,  now  ringing  out  like  a  clarion,  anon 
sinking  to  a  hoarse  whisper  of  passionate  emotion.  To 
many  who  heard  him  the  tones  of  that  beloved  voice, 
now  hushed  in  death,  are  among  their  dearest  memories. 

An  American  divine,  the  Rev.  John  Reid  Shannon, 
writes  thus  :  — 

"Dr.  Farrar  was  a  prose  poet.  His  discourses  were 
fragrant  with  the  most  beautiful  flowers  of  speech.  It 
was  natural  for  him  to  speak  with  golden  utterance, 
with  artistic  colouring,  and  poetic  efflorescence.  He 
was  a  weird  magician  of  language  ;  he  had  a  marvel- 
lously rich  flow  of  good,  racy,  vigorous,  idiomatic  Eng- 
lish, a  wonderful  command  of  phrase  and  range  of 
expression  ;  he  clothed  his  ideas  with  noble,  musical, 
picturesque  words,  which  were  as  lenses  giving  clearest 
vision  of  the  thoughts  he  presented.  The  splendours  of 
his  rhetoric  touched  the  imagination  with  flashing  lights, 
not  unlike  diamonds  whose  facets  throw  back  upon  the 
eye  the  lustrous  rays  of  the  morning  sun. 

"There  was  in  his  discourses  a  freshness  like  the 
wind  that  blows  around  the  mountain  heights.  How  he 
preached  inward  righteousness !  How  he  denounced 
formalising  priestcraft !    How  he  inveighed  against  the 


26o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


hollowness  and  emptiness  of  religious  externalism  !  He 
would  not  have  the  form  put  for  the  reality,  the  shadow 
for  the  substance,  which  seems  to  be  the  trend  of  things 
to-day  in  the  Established  Church  of  England ;  for  its 
glorification  of  ordinances,  its  gorgeous  outward  religious 
conformities,  are,  in  many  sanctuaries,  not  far  removed 
from  the  ceremonialism  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  The 
avowed  and  uncompromising  opponent  of  all  this,  Dr. 
Farrar  stood  as  a  teacher  and  preacher  of  spiritual 
religion." 

By  courtesy  of  the  editor  I  am  permitted  to  give  the 
following  extract  from  an  article  by  W.  Scott  King  in 
the  British  Monthly :  — 

"  Old  St.  Philip's,  Birmingham,  is  crowded  from  altar 
to  doors  with  eager-eyed,  panting,  expectant  young  men 
waiting  to  hear  the  brilliant  author  of  1  The  Life  of 
Christ'  and  'Seekers  after  God.'  Among  them  is  a 
boy  student  from  a  neighbouring  college.  Standing  erect 
in  the  far  pulpit  is  a  noble,  stately  figure  with  pure, 
clear-cut  features,  gentle  yet  throbbing  brow,  and  sil- 
vered hair,  and  a  voice  —  oh,  what  a  voice  !  He  is  tell- 
ing a  story  of  shame  and  wrong,  and  Tom  Hood's 
pitiful  lines  are  falling  from  the  angry,  quivering  lips : — 

"  Mad  from  life's  history, 
Glad  to  death's  mystery. 

Oh,  end  it !  —  end  it !  It  is  insupportable.  The  very  altar 
candles  flickered  like  some  torch  held  low  and  search- 
ingly  over  the  dark  waters.  The  end  comes  —  '  Young 
man!  is  this  your  handiwork?'  And  a  deep  sob  as 
of  conscience-smitten  remonstrance  goes  up  from  the 
heaving  mass  in  answer. 

"  Again,  it  is  a  Sunday  morning  in  May,  and  the  altar 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  261 


is  dressed  in  white  lilies,  and  two  thousand  of  the  city's 
wealthiest  and  most  cultured  have  gathered  to  hear  the 
author  of  'St.  Winifred's*  and  'Darkness  and  Dawn.' 
It  is  Temperance  Sunday  and  the  text  is  awaited  almost 
with  fear.  Then  it  came !  '  Ye  shall  be  hated  of  all 
men  for  My  sake.'  Did  they  look  a  martyred  congre- 
gation —  stylishly  dressed,  well  fed,  complacent  ?  Then 
followed  the  characteristic  sermon — quotation  upon 
quotation  from  Juvenal  and  Herodotus,  from  Milton  and 
Browning,  metaphor  on  the  heels  of  metaphor,  gorgeous 
in  purple  and  gold  diction,  illustrations  from  London 
life,  Athenian  life,  from  Corinth  and  Birmingham,  anal- 
ogies from  nature,  and  apothegms  from  Cicero,  from 
Dante,  from  General  Booth.  It  has  been  said  that 
Dean  Farrar  'thought  in  quotations,'  and  indeed  so  it 
seemed  ;  but  the  quotations  were  a-thrill  with  molten 
passion  and  consuming  solicitude,  reminding  one  of  what 
his  old  friend  and  master  said  of  him  so  long  ago,  '  In 
Farrar  the  culture  of  other  days  is  blended  with  the 
wisdom  of  ours.'  " 

There  is  an  interesting  passage  in  "  Dean  Stanley's 
Life,"  in  which  allusion  is  made  to  one  of  these  sermons, 
preached  on  the  last  Sunday  in  1876.  The  Dean  had 
picked  up  Lord  Beaconsfield  in  Whitehall,  and  carried 
him  into  the  Abbey,  where  the  two  men,  in  their  different 
ways  the  most  remarkable,  and,  so  to  say,  picturesque, 
individuals  of  the  time,  stood  for  a  few  minutes  on  the 
pedestal  of  one  of  the  vaster  monuments  in  order  to 
hear  Canon  Farrar  preach.  As  they  came  out  into  St. 
Margaret's  churchyard,  the  Premier  confided  to  the 
Dean  his  impressions.  "  I  could  not  follow  him,"  he 
said.  "  Perhaps  I  am  hard  of  hearing,  and  I  was  not 
accustomed  to  his  voice  ;  but  it  was  a  fine  delivery  and 


262  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


suitable  to  the  occasion.  But  I  would  not  have  missed 
the  sight  for  anything  —  the  darkness,  the  lights,  the 
marvellous  windows,  the  vast  crowd,  the  courtesy,  the 
respect,  the  devotion  —  and  fifty  years  ago  there  would 
not  have  been  fifty  persons  there  !  " 

I  may  here-  add  that  my  father  throughout  his  life 
almost  invariably  wrote  his  sermons  ;  but  as  he  did  not, 
after  the  manner  of  some  preachers,  keep  his  eyes  glued 
to  the  manuscript  before  him,  but  was  able  at  a  single 
glance  to  take  in  the  substance  of  a  page,  his  utterances 
had  a  freedom  and  power  which  is  seldom  associated 
with  written  discourses.  His  style  was  so  easy  that 
hearers  who  did  not  know  his  practice  not  seldom 
thought  they  were  listening  to  an  extempore  sermon. 
The  intensity  of  his  zeal  for  God  and  fervent  hatred  of 
evil  gave  a  vehement  force  to  many  of  the  preacher's 
utterances.  On  this  point  he  says  himself,  in  "  Mercy 
and  Judgment  "  :  — 

"  It  has  been  laid  to  my  charge,  almost  as  if  it  were  a 
fault,  that  in  those  sermons  I  adopted  a  vehement  tone. 
Is  it  a  sin  to  feel  strongly  and  to  speak  strongly  ?  Are 
the  Prophets  and  the  Psalmists  never  vehement  ?  Is 
St.  Paul  never  vehement  ?  Are  St.  Peter  and  St. 
James  and  St.  John  never  vehement  ?  As  for  '  adopting 
a  vehement  tone,'  my  reply  is  that  I  never  'adopt' 
any  tone  at  all,  but  speak  as  it  is  given  to  me  to  speak, 
and  use  only  such  language  as  most  spontaneously  and 
naturally  expresses  the  thoughts  and  feelings  with  which 
I  write.  '  Every  one,'  says  Dr.  Newman,  '  preaches 
according  to  his  frame  of  mind  at  the  time  of  preaching,' 
and  it  is  quite  true  that  at  the  time  when  I  preached 
those  sermons  [sc.  'Eternal  Hope']  my  feelings  had  been 
stirred  to  their  inmost  depths.  I  am  not  the  least 
ashamed  of  the  '  excitement '  at  which  party  news- 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  263 


papers  and  reviews  have  sneered.  I  do  not  blush  for 
the  moral  indignation  which  most  of  what  has  since  been 
written  on  this  subject  shows  to  have  been  intensely 
needful.  In  the  ordinary  course  of  parochial  work  I 
had  stood  by  death-beds  of  men  and  women  which  had 
left  on  my  mind  an  indelible  impression.  I  had  become 
aware  that  the  minds  of  many  of  the  living  were  hope- 
lessly harassed,  and  —  I  can  use  no  other  word  —  devas- 
tated by  the  horror  with  which  they  brooded  over  the 
fate  of  the  dead.  The  happiness  of  their  lives  was 
shattered,  the  peace  of  their  souls  destroyed,  not  by  the 
sense  of  earthly  bereavement,  but  by  the  terrible  belief 
that  brother,  or  son,  or  wife,  or  husband  had  passed 
away  into  physical  anguish  and  physical  torment, 
endless  and  beyond  all  utterance  excruciating." 

There  are  not  a  few  who  hold  that  Farrar's  chief 
service  to  God  and  the  Church  was  his  outspoken  repu- 
diation of  the  commonly  held  doctrine,  which  attributed 
to  a  loving  Creator  the  everlasting  torture  of  souls  which 
He  has  created  ;  and  who  believe  that,  when  all  his 
other  books  are  forgotten,  he  will  still  be  remembered 
with  gratitude  as  the  fearless  preacher  of  "  Eternal 
Hope." 

Though  this  ghastly  doctrine  of  everlasting  torment  is 
seldom  taught  in  the  present  generation,  it  cannot  be  too 
strongly  asserted  that  a  generation  ago  it  was  commonly 
received  as  a  tenet  of  orthodoxy  that  sinners  were  pun- 
ished by  God  with  everlasting  torment  in  hell-fire,  and 
that  only  a  few  souls  were  exempt  from  this  damnation. 
Even  so  late  as  1880  the  devout  and  earnest  Dean  Goul- 
burn  wrote,  and  dedicated  to  the  Dean  of  Chichester,  an 
elaborate  defence  of  the  thesis  that  God's  purpose  in 
creation  was  that  the  majority  of  mankind  should  suffer 
everlasting  punishment  in  hell,  and  that  this  purpose 


264  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


is  not  inconsistent  with  His  justice  and  love.  That  the 
doctrine  still  found  many  supporters  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  a  second  and  enlarged  edition  of  "  Everlasting 
Punishment "  was  published  in  the  following  year. 

The  theory,  thus  nakedly  upheld  with  uncompromis- 
ing and  courageous  plainness  of  utterance,  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  by  a  dignitary  of  the  Church, 
justly  honoured  for  his  learning  and  piety,  was  commonly, 
almost  universally,  believed  during  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

It  was  this  doctrine  that  made  of  the  elder  Mill  a 
professed  atheist.  "Think,"  said  he,  "of  a  God  who 
could  create  mankind  with  the  infallible  foreknowledge 
and  therefore  with  the  intention  that  the  vast  majority 
of  them  should  suffer  everlasting  torment."  "What- 
ever power,"  says  John  Stuart  Mill,  "such  a  Being  may 
have  over  me,  there  is  one  thing  He  shall  not  do.  He 
shall  not  compel  me  to  worship  Him  ;  and  if  as  a  penalty 
for  my  refusal  to  worship  Him,  that  Being  can  send  me 
to  hell,  then  to  hell  I  will  go."  And  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  more  than  any  single  cause  a  dogma  founded  on 
the  distortion  of  isolated  texts,  mostly  mistranslated 
and  all  misapplied,  elaborated  by  the  sombre  imaginings 
of  mediaeval  monasticism,  and  rivetted  upon  Protes- 
tantism by  Calvinistic  divines,  a  dogma  which  imputes 
to  the  God  of  love  the  malignant  and  maleficent  attri- 
butes of  a  fiend,  has  contributed  to  the  spread  of 
atheism  and  infidelity.  "  If  this,"  says  Leslie  Stephen, 
"be  the  logical  result  of  accepting  theories,  better 
believe  in  no  God  at  all." 

The  pious  author  of  the  "  Saints'  Rest,"  after  im- 
pressing on  his  readers  that  they  are  but  a  small  part  of 
mankind  to  whom  "it  is  their  Father's  good  pleasure 
to  give  the  kingdom,"  proceeds  to  declare  :  "The  ever- 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  265 


lasting  flames  of  hell  will  not  be  thought  too  hot  for  the 
rebellious ;  and  when  they  have  burned  there  through 
millions  of  ages,  He  will  not  repent  him  of  the  evil 
which  has  befallen  them.  Woe  to  the  soul  that  is  thus 
set  up  as  a  butt  for  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty  to  shoot 
at !  and  as  a  bush  that  must  burn  in  the  flames  of  His 
jealousy,  and  never  be  consumed  !  .  .  .  Terrible  thing,  * 
when  none  in  heaven  or  earth  can  help  them  but  God, 
and  He  shall  rejoice  in  their  calamity ! "  And  the 
doctrine  thus  enunciated  by  the  saintly  Baxter  has  been 
explicitly  taught  by  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  declared, 
inter  alia :  "  The  damned  shall  be  tormented  in  the 
presence  of  the  holy  angels  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
Lamb,  so  will  they  be  tormented  also  in  the  presence  of 
the  glorified  saints.  Thus  the  saints  will  be  made  more 
sensible  how  great  their  salvation  is.  The  view  of  the 
misery  of  the  damned  will  double  the  ardour  of  the  love 
and  gratitude  of  the  saints  in  heaven." 

Dr.  Pusey  has  taught :  "Apart  from  all  those  terrific 
physical  miseries  of  which  our  Lord  speaks,  .  .  .  the 
society  of  the  damned  were  misery  unutterable.  Gather 
in  one  in  your  mind  an  assembly  of  all  those  men  and 
women  from  whom,  whether  in  history  or  in  fiction, 
your  memory  most  shrinks ;  gather  in  mind  all  which 
is  most  loathsome,  most  revolting.  Conceive  the  fierce 
fiery  eyes  of  hate,  spite,  frenzied  rage,  were  fixed  on 
thee,  looking  thee  through  and  through  with  hate  .  .  . 
hear  those  yells  of  blasphemy  and  concentrated  hate  as 
they  echo  along  the  lurid  vault  of  hell ;  every  one  hat- 
ing every  one"  ("Parochial  Sermons").1 

Charles  Spurgeon  wrote  :  "  When  thou  diest  thy 
soul  will  be  tormented  alone ;  that  will  be  a  hell  for  it : 

1  It  is  fair  to  add  that  those  views  of  Dr.  Pusey  were  much  modified  in 
after  years. 


266  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


but  at  the  day  of  judgment  thy  body  will  join  thy  soul, 
and  then  thou  wilt  have  twin-hells,  thy  soul  sweating 
drops  of  blood,  and  thy  body  suffused  with  agony.  In 
fire  exactly  like  that  which  we  have  on  earth  thy  body 
will  lie,  asbestos-like,  for  ever  unconsumed,  all  thy  veins 
roads  for  the  feet  of  pain  to  travel  on,  every  nerve  a 
*  string  on  which  the  devil  shall  for  ever  play  his  diaboli- 
cal tune  of  hell's  unutterable  lament ! "  (Sermon  on  the 
Resurrection  of  the  Dead.) 

The  catechism  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  describes 
hell  as  "a  dark  and  bottomless  pit  full  of  fire  and  brim- 
stone, in  which  the  wicked  will  be  punished  by  having 
their  bodies  tormented  with  fire,  and  their  souls  by  a 
sense  of  the  wrath  of  God.  And  these  torments  will 
last  for  ever  and  ever."  The  saintly  churchman  from 
whom  they  take  their  name  seems  to  have  held  similar 
views. 

It  is  true  that  a  silent  revolt  against  this  fetich  had 
been  spreading  among  thoughtful  people,  and  that  mur- 
murs had  been  whispered  even  within  the  pale  of  ortho- 
doxy ;  that  a  few  broad-minded  theologians  had  hinted 
at  the  revision  of  current  eschatological  doctrines,  and 
that  of  educated  laymen  few  even  professed  to  be  bound 
by  the  clanking  chains  of  Calvinism.  But  the  doctrine 
commonly  taught  was  that  propounded  by  Baxter. 

It  is  needful  to  insist  on  the  fact  that  the  belief  in 
everlasting  hell-fire  was  generally  held  by  orthodox 
Christians  in  the  last  generation,  because  we  cannot 
otherwise  appreciate  the  fearless  courage  required  in  a 
clergyman  to  stand  up  in  the  National  Pulpit  and  de- 
nounce this  doctrine  in  language  which  left  no  room  for 
ambiguity. 

In  1877  a  discussion  was  being  held  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  on  the  soul  and  future  life ;  and  the  question 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  267 


raised  by  Mallock,  "  Is  Life  worth  Living  ?  "  had  excited 
the  attention  of  both  clergy  and  laity. 

In  reference  to  this  question  my  father  delivered 
from  the  pulpit  of  Westminster  Abbey  in  November 
and  December  the  five  sermons,  never  originally  in- 
tended for  publication,  and  preached  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  his  duties,  which,  when  it  became  necessary 
to  do  so  in  simple  self-defence  against  the  many  perver- 
sions of  his  real  views  which  were  prevalent  among 
those  who  had  not  heard  the  sermons,  he  published  in 
the  volume  entitled  "Eternal  Hope." 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  therefore,  in  regard  to  the 
style  of  the  book,  and  to  allegations  sometimes  made, 
that  it  depends  for  its  effect  rather  on  rhetoric  than  on 
close  reasoning ;  that  this,  which  was  in  respect  of  its 
far-reaching  influence,  perhaps,  my  father's  most  im- 
portant work,  and  the  one  by  which  his  name  will  be 
handed  down  to  posterity,  was  not  an  elaborately  pre- 
pared theological  treatise,  but  consisted  mainly  of  ser- 
mons thrown  off  in  the  routine  of  a  very  laborious  life, 
and  preached  Sunday  after  Sunday  to  vast  popular 
audiences. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  here  anything  approaching  to 
a  full  account  of  "  Eternal  Hope,"  which  will,  besides, 
be  familiar  to  most  readers  of  these  pages. 

Its  importance  as  a  contribution  to  systematic  theol- 
ogy resides  in  the  Preface  and  Excursus,  in  which  the 
author  pleads  earnestly  for  a  revision  of  certain  transla- 
tions rendered  "hell,"  "damnation,"  and  "everlasting" 
in  the  Authorised  Version.  He  shows  that  the  words 
/c/aitri?,  Kp(va>,  Karaicpi'vco,  etc.,  rendered  into  "  damn " 
and  its  cognates,  imply  neither  more  nor  less  than 
"judgment,"  or  "condemnation";  that  often  words 
rendered  "hell,"  "Sheol,"  "Hades,"  and  "Tartarus" 


268  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


(2  Pet.  ii.  4)  mean  simply  "  the  unseen  world,"  or  the 
world  "beyond  the  grave,"  and  "Gehenna"  a  punish- 
ment —  which,  to  the  Jews,  as  a  body,  never  meant  an 
endless  punishment  —  beyond  the  grave ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  word  alu>vLo<i,  rendered  "everlasting,"  means 
"age-long"  or  "eternal,"  and  confessedly  does  not  and 
seventy  times  out  of  ninety  cannot  mean  "  endless." 

But  though  many  of  the  clergy,  including  not  a  few 
learned  theologians,  acknowledged  the  soundness  of  his 
arguments,  and,  in  several  cases,  confessed  that  they 
had  tacitly  held  similar  views,  but  had  never  ventured 
to  formulate  them  ;  and  though  my  father  in  a  subse- 
quent book,  "  Mercy  and  Judgment,"  successfully  de- 
fended his  views  against  the  criticisms  of  the  learned 
Dr.  Pusey  :  "  Eternal  Hope  "  was  not  addressed  to  the- 
ologians, but  to  the  masses  of  the  people ;  and  was  not 
primarily  designed  to  convince  the  clergy,  but  to  deliver 
humble  believers  from  the  bondage  of  an  intolerable 
error,  and  to  bring  home  to  them  the  love  and  mercy 
of  God. 

Those  sermons,  delivered  on  successive  Sunday  after- 
noons in  the  winter  of  1877,  will  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  heard  that  clarion  voice,  ringing  through  the 
vast  arches  of  the  dim  Abbey,  amid  the  hushed  silence 
of  the  listening  throng.  For  those  who  only  read  them 
they  abound  in  passages  of  matchless  eloquence.  I  will 
select  but  one. 

"  But  to  all  these  comes  the  cry  '  Comfort  ye,  comfort 
ye  my  people,  saith  our  God.'  Your  own  holier  instinct 
tells  you  so.  Son,  or  brother,  or  friend,  or  father  dies  ; 
we  all  have  lost  them ;  it  may  be  that  they  were  not 
holy ;  not  even  religious  ;  perhaps  not  even  moral  men  ; 
and  it  may  be  that,  after  living  the  common  life  of  man, 
they  died  suddenly,  and  with  no  space  for  repentance ; 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  269 


and  if  a  state  of  sin  be  not  a  state  of  grace,  then  cer- 
tainly by  all  rules  of  theology  they  had  not  repented, 
they  were  not  saved.  And  yet,  when  you  stood  —  O 
father,  O  brother  —  heavy-hearted  by  their  open  grave ; 
when  you  drank  in  the  sweet  words  of  calm  and  hope 
which  our  Church  utters  over  their  poor  remains ; 
when  you  laid  the  white  flowers  on  the  coffin ;  when 
you  heard  the  dull  rattle  of  'earth  to  earth,  ashes  to 
ashes,  dust  to  dust ' ;  —  you,  who,  if  you  knew  their  sins 
and  their  feelings,  knew  also  all  that  was  good,  and 
sweet,  and  amiable,  and  true  within  them, — dared  you, 
did  you,  even  in  the  inmost  sessions  of  thought,  con- 
sign them  as  you  ought  logically  to  do,  as  you  ought  if 
you  are  sincere  in  that  creed  to  do,  to  the  unending 
anguish  of  that  hell  which  you  teach  ?  Or  does  your 
heart,  your  conscience,  your  sense  of  justice,  your  love 
of  Christ,  your  faith  in  God,  your  belief  in  Him  of  whom 
you  sing  every  Sunday  that  his  mercy  is  everlasting, 
rise  in  revolt  against  your  nominal  profession  then  ? " 

But  while  he  dared  not  set  limits  to  the  infinite  mercy 
of  an  all-merciful  God  and  Father,  none  ever  pointed 
with  sterner  finger  to  the  ineluctable  Nemesis  that  at- 
tends on  sin.  "  The  man  who  is  sold  under  sin  is  dead, 
morally  dead,  spiritually  dead ;  and  such  a  man  is  a 
ghost,  far  more  awful  than  the  soul  which  was  once  in 
a  dead  body,  for  he  is  a  body  bearing  about  with  him  a 
dead  soul.  Better,  far,  far  better  for  him  to  have  cut 
off  the  right  hand,  or  plucked  out  the  right  eye,  than  to 
have  been  cast  as  he  has  been,  now  in  his  lifetime  — 
and  as  he  will  be  cast  until  he  repents,  even  beyond  the 
grave,  into  that  Gehenna  of  aeonian  fire  !  It  shall  purify 
him,  God  grant,  in  due  time ;  but  oh  !  it  shall  agonise, 
because  he  has  made  himself,  as  yet,  incapable  of  any 
other  redemption.    So  that  if  any  youth  have  wickedly 


270  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


thoughts  in  his  heart  that  God  is  even  such  an  one  as 
himself  —  that  he  may  break  with  impunity  God's  awful 
commandments,  that  he  may  indulge  with  impunity  his 
own  evil  lusts,  let  him  recall  the  sad  experience  of  Solo- 
mon, which  he  heard  this  morning,  '  Walk  in  the  ways 
of  thine  heart  and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes ;  but  know 
thou  that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee  into 
judgment.'  Let  him  remember  the  stern  warning  of 
Isaiah,  'Woe  unto  them  that  call  evil  good  and  good 
evil ;  that  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  darkness ; 
that  put  bitter  for  sweet  and  sweet  for  bitter !  There- 
fore as  the  fire  devoureth  the  stubble,  and  the  flame 
consumeth  the  chaff,  so  shall  their  root  be  as  rottenness, 
and  their  blossom  shall  go  up  as  dust ;  because  they 
have  cast  away  the  law  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  de- 
spised the  word  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel.'  " 

"Eternal  Hope  "  was  regarded  by  certain  churchmen  as 
a  challenge,  and  led  to  a  controversy,  conducted  on  both 
sides  with  perfect  courtesy,  and  finally  to  a  friendly  cor- 
respondence with  the  learned  Dr.  Pusey.  Dr.  Pusey  pub- 
lished in  reply  to  my  father,  "What  is  of  Faith  as  to 
Everlasting  Punishment?"  This  controversy  and  the 
correspondence  which  ensued  cleared  the  air  and  vindi- 
cated, if  vindication  was  needed,  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
preacher  of  "Eternal  Hope";  for,  though  my  father  bated 
no  jot  of  his  belief  as  expressed  in  that  work,  Dr.  Pusey 
was  able  to  write  to  him  :  "  It  is  a  great  relief  to  me  that 
you  can  substitute  the  conception  of  a  future  purification 
[instead  of  a  state  of  probation]  for  those  who  have  not 
utterly  extinguished  the  grace  of  God  in  their  hearts. 
This  I  think  would  put  you  in  harmony  with  the  whole  of 
Christendom!'  And  again  —  "  You  seem  to  me  to  deny 
nothing  which  I  believe.  You  do  not  deny  the  eternal 
punishment  of  souls  obstinately  hard  and  finally  impeni- 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  271 


tent.  I  believe  in  the  eternal  punishment  of  no  other. 
Who  they  are  God  alone  knows." 

The  views  expressed  in  "  Eternal  Hope "  were,  of 
course,  misunderstood,  distorted,  and  perverted  not  only 
by  the  working-man  who  exclaimed,  "  It's  all  right — 
Farrar  says  there's  no  'ell,"  but  by  writers  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical press,  for  whose  distortions  there  was  less  excuse. 
In  1 88 1,  therefore,  my  father  followed  up  the  sermons 
by  a  book,  "  Mercy  and  Judgment,"  in  which  he  ex- 
pressed in  more  permanent  form  his  matured  and 
deliberate  convictions  on  this  great  question.  As  his 
real  views  have  been  so  widely  misrepresented,  I  may 
be  allowed  to  reproduce  here  the  closing  words  of  this 
book,  in  which  the  writer  marshals  and  exhaustively 
reviews  the  whole  body  of  eschatological  theology  from 
the  Fathers  down  to  modern  times  :  — 

"  In  accordance  then  with  what  the  Church  has  ever 
held  —  adding  nothing  to  that  Catholic  creed,  and  sub- 
tracting nothing  from  it ;  — 

"  I  believe  that  on  the  subject  of  man's  future  it  has 
been  God's  will  to  leave  us  uninstructed  in  details,  and 
that  He  has  vouchsafed  to  us  only  so  much  light  as  may 
serve  to  guide  our  lives. 

"  I  believe  in  God  the  Father,  the  Creator ;  in  God  the 
Son,  the  Redeemer ;  in  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Com- 
forter. 

"  I  believe  that  God  is  Love. 

"  I  believe  that  God  willeth  all  men  to  be  saved. 

"  I  believe  that  God  has  given  to  all  men  the  gift  of 
immortality,  and  that  the  gifts  of  God  are  without  repent- 
ance. 

"  I  believe  that  every  man  shall  stand  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  Christ  and  shall  be  judged  according 
to  his  deeds. 


272  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  I  believe  that  He  who  shall  be  our  Judge  is  He  who 
died  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 

"  I  believe  that  '  if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate 
with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  Righteous,  and  He  is 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins.' 

"  I  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

"  I  believe  that  all  who  are  saved  are  saved  only  by 
grace  through  faith  ;  and  that  not  of  ourselves  ;  it  is  the 
gift  of  God. 

"  I  believe  that  every  penitent  and  pardoned  soul  will 
pass  from  this  life  into  a  condition  of  hope,  blessedness, 
and  peace. 

"  I  believe  that  man's  destiny  stops  not  at  the  grave, 
and  that  many  who  knew  not  Christ  here  will  know  Him 
there. 

"I  believe  that  'in  the  depths  of  the  divine  com- 
passion there  may  be  opportunity  to  win  faith  in  the 
future  state.' 

"  I  believe  that  hereafter  —  whether  by  means  of  the 
'  almost-sacrament  of  death  '  or  in  other  ways  unknown 
to  us  —  God's  mercy  may  reach  many  who,  to  all  earthly 
appearance,  might  seem  to  us  to  die  in  a  lost  and  unre- 
generate  state. 

"  I  believe  that  as  impenitent  sin  is  punished  here,  so 
also  it  is  punished  beyond  the  grave. 

"I  believe  that  the  punishment  is  effected,  not  by 
arbitrary  inflictions,  but  by  natural  and  inevitable  con- 
sequences, and  therefore  that  the  expressions  which 
have  been  interpreted  to  mean  physical  and  material 
agonies  by  worm  and  flame  are  metaphors  for  a  state  of 
remorse  and  alienation  from  God. 

"  I  see  reasons  to  hope  that  these  agonies  may 
be  so  tempered  by  the  mercy  of  God,  that  the  soul 
may  hereafter  find  some  measure  of  peace  and  patience, 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  273 


even  if  it  be  not  admitted  into  His  vision  and  His 
sabbath. 

"  I  believe  that  among  the  punishments  of  the  world 
to  come  there  are  '  few  stripes '  as  well  as  '  many 
stripes,'  and  I  do  not  see  how  any  fair  interpretation  of 
the  metaphor,  '  few  stripes,'  can  be  made  to  involve 
the  conception  of  endlessness  for  all  who  incur  future 
retribution. 

"  I  believe  that  Christ  went  and  preached  to  the 
spirits  in  prison,  and  I  see  reasons  to  hope  that  since 
the  gospel  was  thus  once  preached  '  to  them  that  were 
dead,'  the  offers  of  God's  mercy  may  in  some  form  be 
extended  to  the  soul,  even  after  death. 

"  I  believe  that  there  is  an  intermediate  state  of  the 
soul,  and  that  the  great  separation  of  souls  into  two 
classes  will  not  take  place  until  the  final  judgment. 

"  I  believe  that  we  are  permitted  to  hope  that,  whether 
by  a  process  of  discipline,  or  enlightenment,  or  purifica- 
tion, or  punishment,  or  by  the  special  mercy  of  God  in 
Christ,  or  in  consequence  of  prayer,  the  state  of  many 
souls  may  be  one  of  progress  and  diminishing  sorrow, 
and  of  advancing  happiness  in  the  intermediate  state. 

"  I  believe  that  there  will  be  degrees  of  blessedness 
and  degrees  of  punishment  or  deprivation,  and  I  see 
reasons  to  hope  that  there  may  be  gradual  mitigations 
of  penal  doom  to  all  souls  that  accept  the  will  of  God 
respecting  them. 

"I  believe  as  Christ  has  said,  that  'all  manner  of  sin 
shall  be  forgiven  unto  men,  and  all  their  blasphemies, 
however  greatly  they  shall  blaspheme,'  and  that  as 
there  is  but  one  sin  of  which  He  said  that  it  should  be 
forgiven  neither  in  this  aeon  nor  in  the  next,  there  must 
be  some  sins  which  will  be  forgiven  in  the  next  as  well 
as  in  this. 


274  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  I  believe  that  without  holiness  no  man  can  see  the 
Lord,  and  that  no  sinner  can  be  pardoned  or  accepted 
till  he  has  repented,  and  till  his  free  will  is  in  unison 
with  the  will  of  God ;  and  I  cannot  tell  whether  some 
souls  may  not  resist  God  for  ever,  and  therefore  may 
not  be  for  ever  shut  out  from  His  presence. 

"And  I  believe  that  to  be  without  God  is  'hell'; 
and  that  in  this  sense  there  is  a  hell  beyond  the  grave ; 
and  that  for  any  soul  to  fall  even  for  a  time  into  this 
condition,  though  it  be  through  its  own  hardened  im- 
penitence and  resistance  of  God's  grace,  is  a  very  awful 
and  terrible  prospect ;  and  that  in  this  sense  there  may 
be  for  some  souls  an  endless  hell.  But  I  see  reason  to 
hope  that  through  God's  mercy,  and  through  the  merits 
of  Christ's  sacrifice,  the  great  majority  of  mankind  may 
be  delivered  from  this  awful  doom.  For  though,  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  I  know  not  what  its  nature  will  be 
or  how  it  will  be  effected,  — 

"  I  believe  in  the  restitution  of  all  things ;  and  I  be- 
lieve in  the  coming  of  that  time  when,  though  in  what 
sense  I  cannot  pretend  to  explain  or  to  fathom,  God 
will  be  all  in  all. 

"  Ad£a  t<5  ®ea>." 

If,  as  has  been  often  thought  and  said,  "  Eternal  Hope  " 
cost  the  fearless  preacher  high  ecclesiastical  preferment, 
the  sermons  won  for  him  a  far  higher  reward  in  the  love 
and  gratitude  of  thousands  who  looked  up  to  him  as  the 
deliverer  of  the  faithful  from  the  gloom  and  terrors  of  a 
fetich  worship,  which  they  had  been  taught  to  regard 
as  an  essential  of  right  belief,  and  who  rejoiced  in  the 
freedom  to  worship  God  as  the  God  of  Love,  not  as  the 
pitiless  Creator  whose  vengeance  had  decreed  the  great 
mass  of  His  creatures  to  a  doom  of  hideous  and  never 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  275 


ending  torment.  From  a  very  large  number  of  letters 
I  have  selected  a  few  illustrative  of  the  deep  gratitude 
which  those  sermons  evoked  :  — 

"November  26,  1877. 

"  Mv  dear  Sir  :  Millions  will  bless  you  for  your  brave 
and  inspired  utterance  against  the  most  sorrowful  super- 
stition that  ever  oppressed  weary  and  heavy  laden  man. 
We  want  again  the  outright,  burning  words  of  old  pro- 
phetic times  when  men  felt  that  'the  hand  of  the  Lord 
was  upon '  them. 

"  Heartily  yours, 

"J.  P.  H." 

"  November  28th. 

"  My  dear  Canon  Farrar  :  I  must  express  my 
thanks  to  you  for  your  sermon  in  the  Abbey.  God  give 
you  the  wisdom  and  the  courage  to  free  our  Church  from 
the  incubus  of  the  hell  of  Dr.  Watts  k.t.X.  which  has 
kept  the  laity  away  from  us  more  than  ritualism  or  any- 
thing else.  Is  your  sermon  published  ?  If  not  might  I 
have  the  special  favour  of  the  loan  of  the  MS. 

I  have  talked  to  many  persons  privately  in  the  last 
few  years  upon  this  subject,  and  especially  to  the  Bishops, 
and  I  believe  that  every  Bishop  on  the  bench  agrees  in 
his  heart  with  you,  but  they  dare  not  say  it.  Don't 
trouble  to  do  more  than  reply  on  a  post-card.  I  know 
how  you  are  pressed. 

"  I  am  most  truly  yours, 

"B.  W." 

"  Kalxtara,  Ceylon,  Dec.  18,  1877. 

"  My  dear  Canon  Farrar  :  I  seem  to  draw  a  new 
breath  !  to  live  a  new  life  !  to  have  heard  the  best  tidings 


276  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


of  comfort  to  all  men  that  I  have  ever  yet  heard  during 
the  sixty-two  years  of  my  life,  now  that  I  this  moment 
read  of  your  sermon  preached  in  the  sacred  Abbey  de- 
nouncing the  doctrine  of  Eternal  Punishment. 

"  It  seems  to  me  as  if  all  through  heaven  and  earth 
there  was  a  general  rejoicing  on  the  day  you  rent 
*  asunder  that  hideous  veil,  tore  the  black  hiding  cloth, 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  showed  God's  real  face  to  man. 

"  For  a  long  time  past,  more  especially  since  the  two 
years  I  have  spent  in  this  island,  I  have  sorrowed  in 
heart  over  the  blasphemy  of  representing  our  Creator  as 
He  is  represented  by  those  who  preach  the  doctrine  of 
eternal  damnation  and  everlasting  hell-fire,  and  make 
the  devil  the  triumphant  conqueror  and  our  God  (our 
Almighty  God)  the  helpless  God  who  yields  up  those 
He  cannot  save  by  tens  of  thousands,  whilst  those  He 
has  saved  and  will  save  are  counted  by  scores.  Much 
as  there  is  of  devil  worship  in  the  island,  there  is  noth- 
ing that  approaches  the  intensity  of  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  devil  that  is,  alas  !  so  universally  preached  in  our 
Church.  Sad  as  it  is  to  see  the  hopeless,  helpless  at- 
tempts of  these  dear,  dark  races  to  propitiate  the  Devil 
in  the  Swami  festivals,  bringing  the  sick  forward, 
adorning  themselves  with  garlands  of  flowers,  gay  robes 
of  saffron,  blue,  white,  and  red,  piling  edifices  of  brass 
pans,  beating  tom-toms  and  kettledrums,  making  deaf- 
ening noises  and  yelling  shouts,  dancing  hideous  dances 
with  savage  contortions,  dragging  a  poor  solitary  goat 
along  with  this  deluded  crew,  and  finally  sacrificing  it 
with  a  red  cock  and  a  sheep ;  all  this  to  propitiate  their 
devil,  to  cure  their  sick,  to  avert  surrounding  pestilence 
or  threatened  famine,  or  any  impending  evil :  this 
devil  worship  of  theirs,  so  sad  to  see,  is,  surely,  but 
child's  play  compared  with  the  devil  worship  of  our 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  277 


Church  —  with  our  creed  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  devil, 
with  the  faith  that  our  God  creates  a  world  nine-tenths 
of  which  He  dooms  or  has  to  see  doomed  to  everlasting 
punishment,  while  He,  the  Creator,  the  Redeemer,  the 
Sanctifier,  is  content  to  decree  that  this  should  be  so, 
and  is  made  to  say  that  for  this  end  the  human  race  was 
and  is  created,  to  feed  the  everlasting  flames  of  a  hun- 
gry, never  satisfied,  all  devouring  hell-fire. 

******* 

"  May  God  give  you  length  of  days  to  establish  your 
new  doctrine  to  man.  Dearest  F.  D.  Maurice,  from 
heaven,  he  will  be  glad.  May  you  live  to  see  our  Bible 
the  message  of  salvation,  to  see  the  hell  side  torn  out 
of  it  for  ever  and  ever,  and  God  as  He  is  in  His  Holy 
Majesty,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever,  there 
given  to  us  as  always  Love,  Justice,  and  Mercy,  a  Heav- 
enly Father  dealing  with  His  children  not  less  tenderly 
than  a  human  father  with  an  erring  son  ! 

"Do  you  remember  who  it  is  that  troubles  you  with 
this  long  letter  ?  Do  you  remember  when  you  kindly 
walked  from  Farringford  to  Freshwater  one  day  and  in 
my  dining-room  (as  I  see  you  standing  now)  gave  your 
Holy  Book  to  your  ever  grateful 

"  Julia  Margaret  Cameron." 

"Palm  Sunday,  1878. 

"  My  dear  Farrar  :  There  is  nothing  of  the  kind 
I  can  say  quite  sincerely  which  would  give  me  greater 
pleasure  than  to  be  allowed  to  sympathise  with  your 
work,  and  to  have  my  name  in  any  way  joined  with  it. 
You  cannot  have  the  subject  more  at  heart  than  I  have, 
but  you  can  bring  it  home  to  men,  and  that  is  a  great 
privilege.    I  rejoice  to  hear  of  the  sermons  and  of 


278  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


their  effect.  May  they  become  a  thousand-fold  more 
fruitful. 

"  He  whose  soul  constrains  him  to  speak  strong  words 
will  rouse  some  violent  opposition,  but  sympathy  is  real 
if  more  commonly  silent ;  and  I  am  sure  that  you  need 
not  fear  that  many  hearts  are  not  with  you.  That  is 
not  to  be  '  unpopular '  in  any  sense  of  the  word  which 
can  cause  a  moment's  pain. 

"  Brooke's  success  was  a  great  joy  to  me.  He  will,  I 
think,  use  it  as  a  trust. 

"  With  kindest  regards, 

"  Ever  yours  sincerely, 

"  B.  F.  Westcott." 

"Sunday  Evening,  14th  January,  1883. 

"  My  dear  Canon  Farrar  :  I  cannot  help  writing 
to  thank  you  for  the  sermon  of  this  afternoon  !  I  had 
said  so  much  to  Horsley,  and  other  friends,  about  last 
Sunday's  sermon,  that  I  hardly  dared  hope  they  would 
hear  one  as  fine.  But  I  must  say  they  were  as  satisfied 
as  I  was.  Horsley  said,  coming  out,  *  Do  you  pretend 
that  you  thought  last  Sunday's  sermon  finer  ?  If  so, 
all  I  can  say  is,  I  cannot  understand  how  it  could  be, 
for  /  have  never  heard  anything  to  equal  what  we  have 
heard  to-day.'  And  I  feel  sure  he  is  right,  and  the 
crowd  of  young  and  old  men  who  heard  it  will  thank 
you  and  bless  you  in  their  hearts  as  I  do  most  sincerely. 
Fierce  in  your  denunciation  of  sin,  you  comfort  one 
and  encourage  one  at  the  same  time  by  telling  us  how 
to  overcome  it  in  words  that  the  first  scholar  of  our 
time  as  well  as  the  humbler  people  like  myself  can  feel 
and  understand  as  you  intend  they  should  be  under- 
stood. I  know  you  will  excuse  my  writing  thus,  but 
I  feel  so  grateful  to  you  that  I  hardly  know  how  to 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  279 


express  my  feelings  without  appearing  foolish.  Of 
course  I  do  not  dream  of  your  answering  this  note. 
When  we  meet  I  will  be  able  to  tell  you  in  better  Eng- 
lish how  much  I  have  felt  and  how  you  have  touched 
me.  I  happened  to  sit  with  numbers  I  knew,  and  they 
joined  me  in  a  chorus  of  delight.  The  anthem  cooled 
us  down  a  bit ! 

"  Ever  yours  sincerely, 

"A.  B." 

"January  2,  1902. 

"  Most  Reverend  Sir  :  I  trust  you  will  not  deem  it 
an  impertinence  on  my  part  in  addressing  these  few 
lines  to  you,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the 
deep  sense  of  gratitude  I  feel  towards  yourself  after  a 
perusal  of  two  of  your  books.  Some  twenty  years  back 
I  frequently  went  to  hear  you  at  St.  Margaret's,  West- 
minster ;  and  at  the  time  derived  much  pleasure  and 
comfort :  since  then,  I  regret  to  say,  I  have  not  looked 
so  closely  to  my  future  welfare  as  I  should  have  done, 
but  an  event  in  my  life  which  recently  happened  has 
recalled  me  (I  sincerely  trust)  to  my  senses.  It  was  a 
loss  by  death.  I  at  once  turned  my  thoughts,  or  rather 
my  thoughts  voluntarily  returned,  to  the  old  days  I 
mention,  and  as  I  could  no  longer  go  to  hear  you,  by 
some  impulse  I  was  led  to  get  one  of  your  books  from 
the  public  library.  It  was  '  The  Fall  of  Man,'  and  I  can 
assure  you  I  studied  it  with  delight  and  profit.  I  have 
just  finished  reading  your  '  Mercy  and  Judgment,'  and 
no  book  I  have  ever  read  so  much  comforted,  instructed, 
and  delighted  me.  I  feel  so  deeply  grateful  for  such  a 
well  thought  out  and  common-sense  book  that  I  could 
not  refrain  from  attempting  in  a  few  feeble  words  to 
convey  the  sense  of  heartfelt  gratitude  I  feel.  Many 


28o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


doubts  which  I  had  have  been  cleared  away,  and  I  think  I 
understand  your  meaning  in  the  works  referred  to.  Their 
perusal  has  made  me  more  than  ever  determined  to  strive 
to  have  the  higher  life  of  the  hereafter,  and  the  other 
questions  do  not  so  much  matter ;  but  at  the  same  time, 
your  vivid  descriptions  of  God's  love  (as  against  the 
doctrine  of  vengeance)  have  made  me  think  that  one's 
shortcomings  will  be  looked  upon  from  a  heart  of  love, 
and  not  one  wishing  to  put  forward  all  errors  so  as  to 
punish.  I  cannot  well  express  my  thoughts,  but  I  do 
indeed  again  and  again  thank  you.  I  shall,  if  they  are  in 
the  library,  read  your  works.  I  wish  I  had  done  so 
before. 

"  Might  I,  as  a  set-off  for  troubling  you,  tell  you  of  a 
little  incident  connected  with  yourself  ?  About  eighteen 
years  ago  I  went  to  hear  you  one  Sunday  afternoon  at 
the  Old  Victoria  Coffee  Hall,  Waterloo  Road.  The  old 
theatre  was  packed  with  persons,  mostly  from  the  sur- 
rounding slums.  Your  address  was  listened  to  in  great 
silence,  and  at  its  close  a  man  of  the  costermonger  class, 
sitting  next  to  me,  turned  to  a  friend  of  his,  and,  slapping 
him  on  the  knee,  said, 1  Bill,  I  can  understand  that  bloke,' 
meaning  yourself.  I  thought  at  the  time,  and  still 
think,  that  this  was  as  eloquent  a  tribute  as  was  ever 
paid  to  a  man  of  learning  addressing  such  an  audience. 
Again  asking  your  pardon  for  addressing  you  and  with 
my  heartfelt  thanks  I  beg  to  remain, 

"  Your  ever  grateful  servant, 

"T.  F.  D." 

"Sandes  Tolen,  Valdres,  Norway,  Aug.  22,  1903. 
"  It  will  interest  you  to  know  that  up  here,  right  in 
the  wilds,  in  a  Norwegian  house,  we  have  found  a  trans- 
lation of  your  father's  '  Eternal  Hope '  and  1  Mercy 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  281 


and  Judgment.'  It  belongs  to  the  farmer  here,  and  is 
well  worn.  <(  ,, 

But  if  the  sermons  brought  the  preacher  much  grati- 
tude, they  also  drew  down  upon  him  not  a  few  anathe- 
mas from  those  who  were  wedded  to  the  doctrine  of 
everlasting  torment  as  a  tenet  of  orthodoxy.  Of  these 
a  single  sample  shall  suffice  :  — 

"  Sir  :  If  your  sermon  has  been  correctly  reported  in 
the  John  Bull,  which  you  preached  last  Sunday  after- 
noon in  Westminster  Abbey,  in  which  you  boldly  denied 
the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  which  is  distinctly 
taught  in  the  Church  of  England,  as  well  as  in  the 
Word  of  God,  for  the  Church  teaches  nothing  contrary 
to  God's  word ;  you  will,  of  course,  if  you  are  an  honest 
man,  secede  from  that  church  as  I  believe  Sir  Samuel 
Minton  has  done.  You  may  be  a  theologian,  but  I  fear 
that  you  have  never  been  taught  by  God's  Spirit,  or  you 
would  not  preach  such  a  soul-destroying  error  as  that 
which  you  preached  last  Sunday,  if  the  report  be  a  cor- 
rect one.  Look,  for  instance,  at  one  passage,  out  of 
multitudes  that  can  be  adduced,  Rev.  xx.  10:  'And  the 
devil  that  deceived  them  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire 
and  brimstone,  where  the  beast  and  false  prophet  are 
and  shall  be  tormented  day  and  night  for  ever  and  ever.' 
Then  read  the  22d  chapter,  verses  18,  19,  and  you  may 
well  tremble.  I  think  that  your  position  as  a  clergy- 
man is  a  most  fearful  one,  and  I  pray  that  your  eyes 
may  be  opened  to  see  your  danger  before  it  be  too  late, 
and  you  find  yourself  in  the  lake  of  unquenchable  fire. 
"  I  am,  sir, 

"  Yours  faithfully, 

"A  Student  of  God's  Word." 


282  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


The  following  letter,  written  by  my  father  to  Mrs. 
Hypatia  Bradlaugh  Bonner,  daughter  of  the  late  Charles 
Bradlaugh,  is  of  interest :  — 

"Dear  Madam  :  I  do  not  know  a  single  reasonably 
educated  Christian  who  takes  the  mere  symbols  of 
heaven  for  heaven.  We  do  not  suppose  that  heaven  is 
a  cubic  city,  or  a  pagoda  of  jewels,  or  even  an  endless 
seven-fold  chorus  of  hallelujahs  and  harping  symphonies. 
Long  ago  a  Christian  poet  sang  :  — 

"  O  for  a  deeper  insight  into  heaven : 
More  knowledge  of  the  glory  and  the  joy 
Which  there  unto  the  happy  souls  is  given ; 
For  it  is  past  belief  that  Christ  hath  died 
Only  that  we  eternal  psalms  might  sing ; 
That  all  the  gain  Death's  awful  curtains  hide 
Is  this  eternity  of  antheming, 

And  this  praised  rest :  shall  there  be  no  endeavour  ? 

"  If  I  could  find  a  printed  sermon  of  mine,  entitled 
•  What  Heaven  Is,'  you  would  see  that  we  regard  it  as 
a  place  of  progress,  of  fruition  of  all  that  is  noble,  of 
growth  and  progress  upward  and  onward,  of  endless  and 
beneficent  activity,  of  a  love  which  knows  no  fear  and 
no  hatred,  of  a  growing  more  like  to  God  because  we 
shall  see  Him  as  He  is.  In  Browning's  poems  you  will 
see  this  view  of  heaven  constantly  set  forth  ;  and  the 
eminent  theologian,  Whichcot,  said  two  centuries  ago, 
'  Heaven  is  a  temper.'  I  have  often  quoted  with  ap- 
proval the  saying  of  Confucius,  '  Heaven  means  prin- 
ciple.' The  old  detestable  notions  of  happy  souls 
rejoicing  over  the  torments  of  the  lost  have  long  been 
exorcised,  and  if  you  have  time  to  glance  at  my  '  Eter- 
nal Hope '  or  '  Mercy  and  Judgment,'  which  now  re- 
present the  best  opinions  in  the  Church,  you  will  see 


PREACHER  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE"  283 


many  proofs  that  the  Calvinistic  horrors  of  an  unnatural 
theology  have  never  been  authorised  by  many  men, 
even  by  greatest  Christian  fathers  and  canonised  saints 
of  the  mediaeval  Church. 

"  Let  me  add,  I  for  one  have  not  uttered  a  syllable  of 
disrespect  about  your  father,  though  I  am  a  convinced 
believer.  I  only  met  him  once,  as  Chaplain  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  we  exchanged  a  courteous 
greeting.  Had  I  been  able  to  show  him  Christianity 
as  I  see  it,  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  wished  to  be 
counted  among  the  foes  of  our  Gospel  —  if  such  was 
his  attitude.  But  Christianity  has  been  more  sorely 
wounded  in  the  house  of  its  friends  than  by  its  enemies. 
"  Yours  faithfully, 

"F.  W.  Farrar." 


CHAPTER  XII 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 

In  1885,  my  father,  in  company  with  his  friend,  Arch- 
deacon Vesey  of  Huntingdon,  and  Mr.  W.  Ingelow,  a 
brother  of  the  poetess,  paid  a  long  visit  to  Canada  and 
America.  He  landed  at  Quebec  on  September  13, 
1885,  and  after  visiting  Montreal,  Toronto,  Buffalo,  Bal- 
timore, Philadelphia,  Washington,  New  York,  Boston, 
Chicago,  and  other  principal  cities  of  America,  sailed 
from  New  York  on  December  5.  He  was  received  by 
both  Canadians  and  Americans  with  quite  extraordi- 
nary warmth  and  enthusiasm,  a  reception  which  justified 
the  prophecy  made  by  Dean  Stanley  on  the  occasion  of 
his  American  visit  that  "if  Canon  Farrar  should  ever 
visit  this  country,  he  would  create  a  furore  :  he  is  exactly 
the  kind  of  man  that  would  suit  Americans." 

Not  only  was  he  already  popular  in  America  from  his 
books  and  sermons  (several  of  which,  by  the  way,  had 
been  freely  "  pirated  "  by  American  publishers),  but  the 
warmth  and  kindness  of  his  reception  was  in  no  small 
measure  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had  won  the  hearts  of 
Americans  by  his  magnificent  eulogy  on  General  Grant, 
delivered  in  Westminster  Abbey  in  August  of  the  same 
year. 

He  was  engaged  to  deliver  lectures  on  Dante  and 
Browning,  and  he  gave  besides  many  sermons,  lectures, 
and  addresses  on  "Education,"  "Temperance,"  "Biblical 

284 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


285 


Exegesis,"  "  Napoleon,"  "  The  Press,"  and  "  Farewell 
Thoughts  on  America." 

His  eloquent  lecture  on  Dante  sent  many  Americans 
to  the  study  of  that  poet,  and  was  most  warmly  received  ; 
though  he  used  to  quote  with  amusement  the  comment 
of  a  Chicago  journalist,  who  said  that  the  fact  of  the 
poet  having  gone  over  from  the  Guelphs  to  the  Ghibel- 
lines  was  proof  that  Dante  was  a  Mugwump,  and  the 
father  of  Mugwumps ;  and  the  saying  of  an  Indianapo- 
lis newspaper  man,  who  remarked  of  the  lecture,  "  Oh, 
yes,  it  is  all  very  well,  but  Dante  is  a  dead  issue ! " 

"Dante,"  replied  the  lecturer,  "is  not  a  dead  issue. 
He  taught  lessons  which  are  filled  with  instruction  and 
inspiration  for  all  time  to  come."  His  application  of 
the  moral  truths  to  be  learned  from  the  study  of  Dante 
and  the  poet's  message  for  ourselves  is  so  fine  and  char- 
acteristic an  example  of  my  father's  literary  methods 
and  style  that  I  am  tempted  to  give  here  an  extract 
from  this  lecture. 

"  Is  vice  in  this  nineteenth  century  dead,  that  you 
can  afford  to  despise  the  lessons  which  would  set  it 
before  you  in  its  true  nature  ?  Is  any  of  that  pitch  on 
our  hands  ?  Are  any  of  our  tongues  tipped  with  that 
envenomed  flame  ?  Are  none  of  us  tempted  like  those 
wretches  in  the  vestibule  of  hell,  to  stand  leisurely  neu- 
tral in  the  great  conflict  between  good  and  evil  ?  If  any 
of  us  have  followed  the  example  of  those  whom  Dante 
saw  in  that  place,  then  Dante  has  the  same  strong  and 
significant  lessons  for  this  century  that  he  had  for  the 
days  in  which  he  lived.  You  have  all  read  the  Book 
of  Wisdom,  and  you  know  the  lesson  of  the  last  chap- 
ters of  that  remarkably  eloquent  book  is  this  :  That 
wherewithal  man  sinneth,  by  the  same  also  shall  he 
be  punished.    It  is  always  one  sin,  and  that  a  favourite 


286  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


one,  by  which  souls  are  destroyed.  Sometimes  in  a 
single  line  Dante  infuses  a  moral  lesson  which  is  a 
moral  gain  for  life.  One  lesson  he  teaches  is  that  the 
forgiveness  of  sin  is  one  thing  and  the  remission  of  sin 
another.  The  spirits  in  purgatory  do  not  feel  worthy  to 
see  God  till  the  angels  have  brushed  from  their  fore- 
heads the  seven  letters  which  stand  for  the  seven  sins. 
That  punishment  is  the  easiest  to  bear  which  follows 
soonest  on  the  sin.  Another  truth  which  Dante  points 
out  is  the  absolute  necessity  for  repentance.  He  means 
to  teach  us,  too,  that  there  is  danger  in  contact  with 
evil.  He  feels  the  taint  of  the  vices  he  looks  on.  He 
feels  that  he  becomes  base  as  he  listens  to  the  revil- 
ings  of  the  base,  and  false  when  he  listens  to  treachery. 

"  Dante's  vision  has  in  it  a  moral  lesson  worthy  to  be 
pondered  long,  for  it  is  a  faithful  allegory  of  a  spiritual 
torment,  certain  to  be  visited  on  all  who  forsake  God's 
law.  The  moral  hell  and  moral  heaven  consist  not  only 
in  flames  of  torment  and  beatitude,  but  in  tempers;  not 
only  in  flames  or  golden  cities,  but  in  phases  of  the  soul. 
His  object  is  to  hold  up  before  men  the  purity  of  God's 
moral  government,  to  arouse  them  to  a  sense  of  the 
mystery  of  their  state,  to  point  them  to  the  beauty  of 
the  Christian  temper,  to  teach  them  the  fulness  of  the 
grace  of  God,  to  bring  the  human  soul  to  a  conception 
of  the  possibility  of  rising  step  by  step  into  a  joy  not 
imaginable  by  man,  and  yet  of  a  higher  order  than  the 
ideal  of  earth.  His  subject  is  not  so  much  the  state  of 
souls  after  death,  about  which  Dante  knew  just  as  much 
and  just  as  little  as  you  or  I,  because  he  knew  just  as 
much  and  just  as  little  as  has  been  revealed  to  us  by 
God.  He  does  not  mean  to  describe  a  kind  of  hell  in 
which  all  mankind  has  ceased  to  believe  as  a  reality,  but 
behind  this  he  means  to  give  the  full  verity  of  a  moral 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA  287 


hell.  His  subject  is  not  so  much  the  state  of  souls  after 
death  as  that  man  is  rendering  himself  liable,  by  the 
exercise  of  free  will,  to  the  rewards  and  punishments  of 
justice.  It  is  solely  by  realising  such  truths  that  any 
one  of  us  can  attain  the  ideal  which  Dante  wanted  to 
picture  forth  before  us  and  help  us  to  attain  —  the  ideal 
of  one  who  in  boyhood  is  gentle  and  obedient  and 
modest,  in  youth  is  temperate,  resolute,  and  loyal,  in 
ripe  years  is  prudent,  just,  and  generous,  and  who  in  age 
has  attained  to  calm  wisdom  and  to  perfect  peace  in 
God." 

His  lecture  on  Browning  was  no  less  eloquent.  My 
father  drew  much  of  his  inspiration  from  Browning,  and 
seldom  preached  a  sermon  without  quoting  from  him. 
He  had  the  deepest  reverence  for  his  genius,  and 
counted  it  among  the  choicest  rewards  of  his  life  to  be 
honoured  with  his  intimate  personal  friendship.  He 
says  of  him  in  this  lecture:  "A  hundred  names  drawn 
from  the  history  of  all  ages  would  not  exhaust  Brown- 
ing's dramatis  persona  or  adequately  represent  the 
many-coloured  tapestry  on  which  he  has  woven  so  many 
figures,  now  lurid  as  the  thundercloud,  now  soft  as  the 
summer's  eve.  No  other  poet  has  sounded  such  depths 
of  human  feeling,  or  can  startle  the  soul  with  such  a 
kindling  energy.  There  is  hardly  a  period,  hardly  a 
human  situation,  on  which  he  has  not  flung  the  light  of 
his  splendid  genius." 

The  effect  of  this  lecture  is  described  in  "  Men  I 
Have  Known  "  :  — 

"  In  later  years  Mr.  Browning  was  particularly  cordial 
to  me,  not  only  because  he  knew  how  deep  was  the 
debt  of  gratitude  which  I  owed  to  him  for  all  that  I  had 
learnt  from  his  poems,  but  also  because  he  was  kind 
enough  to  believe  that  I  had  greatly  promoted  the  sale 


288 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


of  his  writings  in  America.  When,  some  ten  years  ago, 
I  visited  America,  it  had  not  been  at  all  my  original 
intention  to  make  what  is  called  'a  lecturing  tour,'  but 
only  to  deliver  a  theological  course  on  a  particular 
foundation  to  which  I  had  been  invited  by  the  Bishop 
of  Pennsylvania.  When,  however,  I  yielded  to  the 
strong  pressure  which  induced  me  to  lecture  in  some  of 
the  great  cities  of  the  States,  I  chose  '  Browning's 
Poems'  as  the  subject  for  one  of  my  lectures.  The 
poet's  readers  and  admirers  in  America  could  not  at 
that  time  have  been  very  numerous,  for  before  I  gave 
my  lecture  at  Boston  —  certainly  the  most  intellectual 
and  literary  city  in  the  United  States  —  I  was  told  that 
not  half  a  dozen  copies  of  his  poems  had  been  sold  there 
during  the  year.  The  morning  after  my  lecture,  every 
copy  which  could  be  procured  either  in  Boston  or  in  the 
neighbourhood  was  in  immediate  demand.  Mr.  Brown- 
ing more  than  once  expressed  his  obligation  to  me  for  this 
service ;  but  I  could  not  claim  the  smallest  gratitude. 
I  am  sure  that  he  overestimated  the  effects  of  my  lec- 
tures upon  the  sale  of  his  works  ;  and,  in  any  case,  I 
was  only  acting  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  sentence,  Xafnrd- 
8ia  iv  %epalv  e^oi'Te?  SiaBwaovatv  aXX^Xoi?.  I  was  trying 
to  hand  on  the  torch  which  had  given  light  to  me." 

It  would  seem  from  this  that  Browning's  recognition 
by  the  American  public  was  even  tardier  than  it  had 
been  in  England.  In  this  connection  my  father  tells  in 
"  Men  I  Have  Known  "  the  following  interesting  anec- 
dote, which  he  had  from  the  poet's  own  lips :  "  I  once 
spent  a  Sunday  at  Oxford  at  the  house  of  Dr.  Jowett, 
the  master  of  Balliol  —  one  of  those  charming  Sundays 
in  which  he  used  to  welcome  the  presence  of  one  or  two 
congenial  guests.  Mr.  Browning  was  on  that  Sunday 
the  only  other  guest  staying  with  Dr.  Jowett,  and  I  had 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


289 


a  long  walk  and  talk  with  him  that  afternoon.  The 
second  volume  of  '  The  Ring  and  the  Book '  had  just 
come  out,  and  something  turned  our  conversation  in  the 
direction  of  his  poems,  of  which  he  did  not  often  speak 
voluntarily.  He  alluded  without  the  least  bitterness  to 
the  long  course  of  years  in  which  his  works  were  doomed 
to  something  like  contemporary  oblivion,  during  which 
very  few  copies,  indeed,  of  them  were  sold,  and  scarcely 
one  of  them  attained  to  a  second  edition.  I  said  some- 
thing about  the  Browning  Society,  which  had  then  been 
recently  formed,  and  he  said  that  there  were  many  who 
professed  to  laugh  at  it,  but  for  his  part  he  was  grateful 
for  this  and  every  other  indication  of  a  dawning  recog- 
nition, considering  the  dreary  time  of  neglect  and 
ignorant  insult  which  he  had  been  doomed  to  undergo. 
And  then  he  told  me  the  story  which  he  also,  I  believe, 
told  to  others,  but  which  I  narrate  in  the  form  in  which 
he  told  it  to  me  that  Sunday  afternoon.  He  said  that 
when  one  of  his  earlier  volumes  came  out  —  I  think, 
'  Bells  and  Pomegranates  '  —  a  copy  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  was  then  at  the  zenith  of  his 
fame,  and  whose  literary  opinion  was  accepted  as  orac- 
ular. Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  expressed  his  admiration  of  the 
poems,  and  of  the  originality  of  the  lessons  they  con- 
tained ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  editor  of  Taifs  Magazine, 
then  one  of  the  leading  literary  journals,  asking  if  he 
might  review  them  in  the  forthcoming  number.  The 
editor  wrote  back  to  say  that  he  should  always  esteem 
it  an  honour  and  an  advantage  to  receive  a  review  from 
the  pen  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill,  but  unfortunately  he  could 
not  insert  a  review  of  '  Bells  and  Pomegranates,'  as  it  had 
been  reviewed  in  the  last  number.  Mr.  Browning  had 
the  curiosity  to  look  at  the  last  number  of  the  magazine, 
and  there  read  the  so-called  review.    It  was  as  follows  : 


290  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


' "  Bells  and   Pomegranates,"  by  Robert   Browning : 

Balderdash.' 

" '  It  depended,  you  see,'  said  Mr.  Browning,  '  on 
what  looked  like  the  merest  accident,  whether  the  work 
of  a  new  and  as  yet  almost  unknown  writer  should  receive 
an  eulogistic  review  from  the  pen  of  the  first  literary 
and  philosophic  critic  of  his  day,  — a  review  which  would 
have  rendered  him  most  powerful  help,  exactly  at  the 
time  when  it  was  most  needed,  —  or  whether  he  should 
only  receive  one  insolent  epithet  from  some  nameless 
nobody.  I  consider,'  he  added,  'that  this  so-called 
review  retarded  recognition  of  me  by  twenty  years' 
delay.'  " 

The  extraordinary  enthusiasm  with  which  my  father 
was  received  by  Americans  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  when  he  was  advertised  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  "  Edu- 
cation" at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  at  Baltimore,  at 
least  twenty-five  hundred  persons,  not  including  mem- 
bers of  the  University,  made  written  application  for 
admission  to  the  academy. 

The  following  extract  from  a  Philadelphia  paper  gives 
a  good  picture  of  the  multitude  which  thronged  to  hear 
him  preach  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  :  — 

"The  appearance  of  nave  and  transept  realised  the 
hackneyed  expression  of  a  '  sea  of  faces '  to  the  most 
jaded  imagination.  It  was  a  veritable  sea,  in  which  all 
architectural  distinction  was  drowned.  Nothing  could 
be  seen  of  the  dividing  lines  of  pews.  The  divisions  of 
the  aisles  were  completely  lost,  or  only  indicated  by 
currents  in  the  ocean  of  humanity.  This  marine  effect 
was  heightened  by  the  appearance  of  the  organ  loft, 
which,  hanging  in  the  air  above  the  entrance  of  the 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


291 


church,  and  crowded  with  a  multitude  of  people  so  great 
as  to  hardly  allow  the  choristers  room  to  open  their 
hymnals,  looked  like  a  towering  rock  to  which  the  sea 
below  had  risen,  and,  falling,  left  there  the  debris  of  the 
tide.  Only  the  Holy  of  Holies  was  left  uninvaded  by 
the  multitude.  The  steps  to  the  chancel  were  occupied 
by  long  rows  of  men  and  women.  One  white-haired 
old  gentleman  sat  on  the  very  pulpit  steps.  Between 
these  places  of  observation  and  the  chancel  were  chairs 
on  which  women  were  seated.  The  very  cushions  on 
which  communicants  kneel  about  the  chancel  rail  were 
occupied.  The  fringe  of  this  crowd  was  on  the  steps 
of  the  church  and  in  the  street  itself." 

The  sermon  was  on  Biblical  Exegesis,  and  the 
preacher  took  for  his  text  Hebrews  xiii.  27,  "And  this 
word,  Yet  once  more,  signifieth  the  removing  of  those 
things  that  are  shaken  as  of  things  that  are  made,  that 
those  things  which  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain." 

"People,"  he  said,  "often  worry  themselves  because 
they  cannot  believe  this  or  that,  when  this  or  that  has 
nothing  to  do  with  true  religion,  when  this  or  that  is 
not  insisted  upon  by  the  Universal  Church.  You  feel 
uncertainty  about  this  or  that  passage  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, about  the  sun  standing  still,  or  about  the  rising 
of  a  dead  man  at  the  tomb  of  Elisha.  I  counsel  you  to 
study  these  things  humbly,  get  the  best  accounts  of 
them  you  can,  but  remember  that  they  are  questions 
of  history,  or  archaeology,  to  which  you,  at  the  best,  can 
only  bring  intelligent  consideration.  Finally,  if  you 
cannot  understand  them,  let  them  go.  These  are  not 
generally  necessary  to  salvation.  There  is  not  a  word 
about  them  in  the  Apostles',  or  the  Nicene,  or  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed,  nor  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the 


292  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Christian  faith,  nor  —  more  important  still  —  is  there 
a  word  about  them  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  nor  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  You  will  not  be  questioned 
about  those  things  at  the  bar  of  Judgment.  You  will 
be  asked  if  you  have  kept  your  body  in  temperance, 
soberness,  and  chastity ;  if  you  have  been  rigidly  hon- 
est ;  if  you  have  heightened  the  moral  standard  of  the 
world  by  your  presence  in  the  world. 

******* 

"  Do  not,  I  entreat  you,  confuse  the  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity with  a  mass  of  disputed  or  disputable  questions. 
Christianity  does  not  depend  upon  this  or  that  particu- 
lar view  of  sacraments  or  mysteries.  Christianity  is  not 
what  St.  Augustine  taught,  nor  St.  Anselm,  nor  Bishop 
Pearson,  but  what  Christ  taught.  Do  you  believe  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Do  you  keep  His  command- 
ments ?  Do  you  love  your  brother  as  yourself  ?  These 
are  the  questions  for  you  to  ask  yourself.  In  heaven 
there  are  neither  Anglicans,  nor  Catholics,  nor  Dissent- 
ers ;  neither  High,  Low,  nor  Broad  Churchmen  ;  neither 
the  Damnamus  of  Augsburg  nor  the  Anathema  of 
Trent.  It  is  the  abode  of  saints  —  that  is,  of  the  good. 
So  taught  the  Founder  of  this,  your  city  of  brotherly 
love,  saying  it  would  be  for  you  to  stand  or  fall  as  you 
fulfilled  the  teaching  or  neglected  it.  If  we  are  Chris- 
tians, if  we  are  good  men,  according  to  our  lights, 
nothing  can  make  us  afraid." 

Another  extract  from  a  sermon  preached  in  the  same 
church  from  the  text  "  Little  children,  keep  yourselves 
from  idols  "  is  a  splendid  example  of  the  fiery  eloquence 
with  which  my  father  denounced  wickedness  and  idolatry. 

"  Do  none  of  you,  my  brethren,  worship  Moloch,  or 
Mammon,  or  Baal  Peor  ?  Have  none  of  you  in  your 
hearts  a  secret  niche  for  Belial  ?    When  your  heart  is 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


293 


absorbed  in  a  passion  of  envy,  hatred,  and  rage ;  when 
you  are  determined,  if  you  can,  to  wound  by  false  words, 
by  bitter  attacks,  by  open  or  secret  injuries  ;  when  you 
display  the  '  eternal  spirit  of  the  populace '  by  giving 
yourselves  up  to  a  passion  of  reckless  depreciation  of 
social,  political,  or  religious  opponents  ;  when  you  in- 
voke the  very  name  of  God  that  you  may  emphasise 
the  curses  against  your  enemies  —  is  God  the  God  of 
your  worship  ?  Of  your  lips,  yes ;  of  your  life,  no. 
What  are  you  then  ?  Whatever  you  may  call  yourself, 
what  are  you  but  a  worshipper  of  Moloch  ? 

"  And  when  you  talk  of  nothing,  think  of  nothing, 
scheme  after  nothing,  I  had  almost  said,  pray  for  noth- 
ing, but  money,  money,  money,  all  the  day  long  ;  hasting 
to  be  rich  and  so  not  being  innocent ;  ready,  if  not  down- 
right to  forge  or  steal  in  order  to  get  it,  yet  ready  to 
adulterate  goods,  to  scamp  work,  to  have  false  balances 
and  unjust  weights,  to  defraud  others  of  their  rights  and 
claims,  to  put  your  whole  trade,  or  commerce,  or  profession 
on  a  footing  which,  perhaps  conventionally  honest,  yet 
goes  to  the  very  verge  of  dishonesty ;  toiling  for  money, 
valuing  it  first  among  earthly  goods,  looking  up  to  those 
who  have  won  it  as  though  they  were  little  human 
gods,  hoarding  it,  dwelling  on  it,  measuring  the  sole 
success  in  life  by  it,  marrying  your  sons  and  daughters 
with  main  reference  to  it  —  is  God  the  God  of  your 
worship  ?  Of  your  lips,  yes ;  of  your  life,  no.  What 
are  you  then  but  an  idolater,  a  worshipper  of  Mam- 
mon ? 

"  If  you  are  a  drunkard,  or  impure ;  if  the  current  of 
your  life  is  absorbed  and  swayed  by  unholy  impulses ; 
if  you  have  flung  the  reins  upon  the  neck  of  your  evil 
passions  ;  if  the  temple  of  your  body  is  full  of  chambers 
in  which  wicked  thoughts  are  ever  banding  before  the 


294  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


walls  which  glow  with  unhallowed  imagery  —  again  is 
God  the  God  of  your  worship  ?  Of  your  lips,  yes  ;  of 
your  life,  no.  What  are  you  then  but  an  idolater  ?  In 
what  respect  are  you  then  less  guilty  than  Zimri,  the 
Prince  of  Simeon,  who  worshipped  Baal  Peor  ?  Not  an 
idolater  ?  Alas !  my  brothers,  every  one  of  us  is  an 
idolater  who  has  not  God  in  all  his  thoughts,  and  who 
has  cast  away  the  laws  of  God  from  the  government  of 
his  life.  I  know  not  that  it  is  a  much  worse  idolatry  to 
deny  God  altogether  and  openly  deify  the  brute  impulses 
of  our  lower  nature  than  it  is  in  words  to  confess  God, 
yet  not  to  do,  not  to  intend  to  do,  never  seriously  to  try 
to  do  what  He  commands,  or  to  abandon  what  He  for- 
bids." 

My  father  was  much  touched,  as  he  could  hardly  fail 
to  be,  by  the  cordiality  of  his  reception  in  America.  "  I 
have  been  impressed,"  he  said,  "  with  the  warmth  and 
universality  of  the  kindness  that  I  have  received  on  all 
sides.  It  has  come  not  merely  from  the  bishops  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  but  also  from  the  representa- 
tives of  all  religious  denominations,  including  Roman 
Catholics,  Quakers,  and  Congregationalists.  I  have 
been  most  struck  with  the  enormous  power  of  life, 
energy,  and  vivacity  in  every  department." 

Of  American  audiences  he  says :  "  Some  one  has 
spoken  of  the  'appalling  silence  of  American  audiences,' 
and  that  strikes  one  as  their  most  remarkable  character- 
istic. The  stillness  is  absolute,  and  the  attention  of  the 
audience  is  perfect,  but  they  are  exceedingly  undemon- 
strative, much  more  so  than  English  audiences." 

This  remark  applies  to  his  Dante  and  Browning  lec- 
tures, but  when  he  lectured  on  a  subject  so  near  their 
hearts  as  Temperance,  an  American  audience  could  be 
demonstrative  enough.    Of  his  lecture  on  Temperance, 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA  295 


delivered  under  the  auspices  of  the  National  Temperance 
Society  in  Chickering  Hall,  New  York,  a  correspond- 
ent wrote :  "  Over  and  over  again  some  enthusiastic 
listener,  bubbling  with  excitement,  let  his  feelings  run 
riot  in  applause,  and  when  the  Archdeacon  rose  to  reply, 
the  scene  for  a  few  moments  was  of  a  most  extraordinary 
kind,  so  terrific  was  the  outburst  of  applause.  One  less 
used  to  public  life  would  assuredly  have  been  tremen- 
dously embarrassed  by  the  overwhelming  cordiality  of  the 
demonstration,  but  the  man  of  massive,  marble  brow, 
lined  with  the  intense  application  of  his  life  of  study, 
stood  the  very  picture  of  calm  self-possession  waiting  to 
be  heard." 

The  following  letter  from  an  American  pastor  is  of 
interest  in  this  connection  :  — 

"  Brooklyn,  U.  S.  A.,  June  4,  '77. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Farrar:  Ever  since  your  incomparable 
1  Life  of  Christ '  appeared  I  have  counted  you  a  personal 
benefactor.  But  now  whenever  I  read  your  fearless  and 
eloquent  speeches  for  the  total  abstinence  reform,  I  hail 
you  as  the  benefactor  of  all  Britain  and  the  world. 

"  Allow  me  to  thank  you  —  not  only  for  myself,  but 
for  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  '  National  Temper- 
ance Society '  —  of  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be  the 
chairman. 

"When  in  London  (in  1872)  and  addressing  meetings 
in  Exeter  Hall,  with  my  intimate  friend  Rev.  Newman 
Hall  and  with  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson  and  others,  I  had  not 
yet  known  of  you  as  a  battler  in  our  ranks.  When  next 
I  visit  England,  it  will  give  me  great  delight  to  take  the 
hand  which  has  wrought  such  a  service  for  me  as  the 
preparation  of  your  books  and  addresses. 


296 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  We,  too,  have  an  uphill  clamber  with  this  movement 
against  the  decanter  and  the  dram  shop. 

"  But  in  God's  '  by  and  by  '  the  victory  shall  be  won. 
We  are  fighting  the  most  gigantic  curse  that  desolates 
our  globe.  You  in  Britain  and  we  in  America  have  a 
common  partnership  in  toil  for  the  rescue  of  our  Saxon 
race  from  this  monster  evil. 

"  It  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  receive  even  a  line 
from  one  whom  I  so  revere  and  even  love. 

"  Please  to  present  my  kind  regards  to  Dean  Stanley, 
who  honoured  me  with  many  courtesies  when  I  was 
visiting  London,  as  the  Deputy  to  the  Presbyterian 
General  Assembly  of  Scotland.  I  cherish  the  memory 
of  that  rare  and  saintly  woman,  the  Lady  Augusta,  as 
do  other  Americans  who  ever  saw  or  knew  her. 

"  With  highest  regard, 
"  Believe  me, 

"Yours  most  sincerely, 

"Theo.  L.  Cuyler, 
"  Pastor  of  Lafayette  Ave.  Church." 

Considerations  of  space  forbid  me  to  relate  in  detail 
the  incidents  of  this  American  tour.  In  "  Men  I  Have 
Known  "  my  father  has  given  reminiscences  of  his  pleas- 
ant intercourse  with  famous  Americans,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  James  Russell  Lowell, 
his  dear  friend  Phillips  Brooks,  his  generous  host  George 
W.  Childs  of  Philadelphia,  Cyrus  Field,  and  others. 
After  this  visit  especially,  reciprocal  ties  of  peculiar 
kindliness  attached  him  to  the  Americans.  He  fre- 
quently entertained  Americans,  both  at  Westminster, 
and  afterwards  at  Canterbury ;  an  American  pew  was 
set  apart  in  St.  Margaret's  for  their  use  ;  and  he  took 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


297 


especial  pleasure  in  showing  parties  of  quick-witted  and 
enthusiastic  Americans  over  Westminster  Abbey  or 
Canterbury  Cathedral.  America  was  associated  for  him 
with  some  of  the  happiest  memories  of  his  life,  and  he 
never  failed  to  recall  with  gratitude  the  generous  en- 
thusiasm, the  warm  kindliness,  and  the  boundless  hospi- 
tality which  he  experienced,  both  in  Canada  and  among 
the  citizens  of  the  Great  Republic. 

His  old  friend,  Archdeacon  Vesey,  who  accompanied 
him  during  a  great  part  of  the  American  tour,  has  been 
good  enough  to  contribute  some  reminiscences  which  I 
will  preface  with  a  letter  which  my  father  wrote  to  urge 
him  to  be  his  companion :  — 

"  17  Dean's  Yard,  Westminster,  May  5,  1885. 

"  My  Dear  Archdeacon  : 

******* 

"As  to  America  —  grasp  your  nettle!  or  rather  your 
rose,  with  its  odour  and  few  thorns.  If  you  don't  come 
now,  you  never  will  —  you  will  never  see  Niagara  —  or 
the  Lake  of  the  Thousand  Isles  —  or  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains —  or  Boston  —  or  an  iceberg  —  or  a  humming-bird. 
As  for  the  Bishop,  he  will  be  only  too  glad  that  you 
should  have  a  change,  and  would  be  horrified  to  think 
that  two  days  with  him  should  keep  you.  He  needs 
nothing.  I  do.  I  want  your  company.  It  would  make 
all  the  difference  to  a  neglected  and  unprosperous  man 
like  me.  We  will  sail  to  Quebec  early  in  September. 
I  know  the  Allans  of  the  Allan  line,  and  would  get  a 
good  cabin.  The  fare  is  only  £  18  first  class.  By  com- 
ing with  me  you  would  have  very  little  expense.  We 
should  probably  get  free  passes  on  some,  if  not  all,  the 
lines,  and  I  have  already  invitations  for  self  and  friend 


298  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


at  all  the  principal  cities,  so  you  would  be  saved  all  hotel 
bills  —  which  might  not  happen  another  time.  We 
should  be  received  very  kindly ;  it  would  cost  you  very 
little,  and  you  would  come  back  like  a  giant  refreshed 
with  wine.  What  is  £  50  (it  would  not  cost  you  more) 
to  a  man  like  you  ?  Why,  it  is  less  than  £  10  or  £  5  is 
to  a  wretch  like  me !  I  enlist  the  powerful  aid  of  Mrs. 
Vesey.  I  am  sure  she  will  wish  you  not  to  lose  this 
opportunity. 

"  Yours  affectionately, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

Archdeacon  Vesey  writes  as  follows  :  — 
"  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  accompany  Canon  Farrar 
for  a  considerable  part  of  his  tour  through  Canada  and 
the  United  States  in  1885.  On  the  voyage  out  we 
experienced  an  Atlantic  gale.  It  was  approaching  on 
our  first  Sunday,  and  the  conduct  of  the  service  held 
in  the  saloon  was,  to  those  responsible  for  it,  a  matter 
of  some  anxiety.  Farrar  preached  admirably  for  a  few 
minutes  on  the  words  '  He  bringeth  them  to  the  haven 
where  they  would  be,'  supporting  himself  by  the  handrail 
of  the  companion  ladder,  and,  in  spite  of  the  general  un- 
comfortable conditions  which  he  shared  with  the  congre- 
gation, succeeded  in  riveting  every  one's  attention.  In 
Canada  he  began  delivering  his  lectures  on  Dante  and 
Browning,  preaching  always  twice  on  Sundays,  and  often 
at  other  times.  The  first  was  the  popular  lecture,  and 
was  given  in  many  of  the  large  cities.  It  was  always 
highly  appreciated,  though  a  hint  was  once  given  to  me 
by  a  great  personal  admirer  of  the  lecturer,  but  for 
whom  the  subject  had  not  an  equal  attraction,  that  I 
should  ask  my  friend  not  to  talk  quite  so  much  about 
'  that  Dant ! ' 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


299 


"  I  think  his  greatest  effort  was  the  address  at  the 
opening  of  term  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  at 
Baltimore ;  this  was  expected  to  be  delivered  to  a  body 
of  some  150  or  200  students,  but  the  desire  to  hear  it 
was  so  great  that  it  became  necessary  to  engage  the 
large  theatre  of  the  Academy  of  Music,  where  about 
3000  people  filled  stalls,  pit,  boxes,  and  gallery  to  the 
roof.  From  the  stage  he  gave  a  brilliant  address  upon 
the  Educational  Value  of  Philosophy  and  the  claims  of 
science  to  occupy  a  large  share  in  the  studies  of  a  great 
University.  It  was  illustrated,  after  his  manner,  by 
abundant  quotations,  and  he  held  the  vast  audience 
enchained  for  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half,  not  only  by  the 
interesting  and  attractive  way  in  which  a  dry  subject,  as 
some  might  have  thought  it,  was  presented,  but  also  by 
the  charm  of  his  singularly  musical  voice. 

"  Wherever  he  preached  great  crowds  assembled  to 
hear  him,  and  there  were  instances  where  some,  unable 
to  get  into  the  church,  climbed  ladders  and  listened  at 
the  open  windows.  One  lady  told  me  she  had  travelled 
one  thousand  miles  to  hear  him.  At  one  church  —  I 
think  it  was  in  Baltimore  —  the  crowd  was  so  great  that 
hundreds  stood  outside,  and  the  carriage  in  which  Farrar 
was  could  not  get  up  to  the  door.  When  at  last  he  got 
out,  he  was  taken  in  charge  by  a  policeman,  who  called 
out  '  Room  for  the  Deacon  ! '  and  when  the  vestryman 
asked  where  he  was,  replied,  '  I've  got  the  Deacon  under 
my  arm.' 

"  No  one  could  accuse  Farrar  at  any  time  of  want- 
ing the  courage  of  his  convictions :  and  so,  with  a  most 
cordial  feeling  towards  Americans  and  the  deeper  appre- 
ciation of  the  extreme  kindness  and  hospitality  with 
which  they  had  received  him,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
speak  out  on  certain  points,  as  may  be  seen  from  the 


300  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


1  Farewell  Thoughts  on  America,'  an  address  delivered 
in  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York.  He  smarted 
occasionally  when  the  interviewers  worried  him  at  inop- 
portune moments,  and  though  always  courteous,  he  could 
not 'help  alluding  in  the  above-mentioned  address  to  the 
'  intrusiveness  of  the  baser  portion  of  your  Press,'  a 
complaint  which  was  justified  by  the  conduct  of  one  of 
the  journalists,  who  forced  himself  into  your  father's 
bedroom,  and  next  morning  entertained  his  readers  with 
a  detailed,  but  not  very  accurate,  description  of  his 
dressing-gown  and  slippers. 

"Among  the  remarkable  Americans  whom  he  met,  or 
who  showed  him  hospitality,  were  President  Cleveland, 
Mr.  Bayard,  Secretary  of  State  and  afterwards  Ambas- 
sador to  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Cyrus  Field,  Mr.  C.  Vander- 
bilt,  Mr.  George  W.  Childs,  his  friend  Phillips  Brooks, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Massachusetts,  the  Reverend  Dr. 
McVicar,  and  many  others." 

I  cannot  better  conclude  this  chapter  than  with  a 
passage  from  his  address,  "  Farewell  Thoughts  on 
America" :  — 

"  I  have  stood  astonished  before  the  growth,  the 
power,  the  irresistible  advance,  the  Niagara  rush  of 
sweeping  energy,  the  magnificent  apparent  destiny  of 
the  nation,  wondering  whereunto  it  would  grow.  It  is 
the  work  of  America  to  show  to  the  nations  the  true 
ideal  of  national  righteousness.  In  numbers  you  are,  or 
soon  will  inevitably  be,  the  greatest ;  in  strength,  the 
most  overwhelming  ;  in  wealth,  the  most  affluent,  of  all 
the  great  nations  of  the  world.  In  these  things  you 
not  only  equal  other  people,  but  excel  them.  Why  ? 
Mainly,  I  believe,  because  your  fathers  feared  God,  and 
God  has  said,  'Him  that  honours  Me  I  will  honour.' 


VISIT  TO  AMERICA 


301 


I  do  not  believe  that  America  will  turn  her  back  upon 
the  ideal  of  her  fathers.  I  believe  that  she  will  be 
preserved  from  those  perils  which  lie  before  her  by  the 
memories  of  the  dead  and  by  the  virtues  of  the  living. 
I  believe  that  she  will  help  to  keep  the  nations  from  the 
horrors  of  war.  I  believe  that  she  will  lead  us  on  in  a 
triumphant  path  to  a  legislation  that  shall  fearlessly 
smite  the  head  of  every  abuse,  to  a  religion  that  shall 
be  free  from  fetich  worship.  I  believe  that  she  will 
justify  to  humanity  her  majestic  faith  in  man.  I  believe 
that  it  is  for  these  objects  that  God  has  given  her  an 
exhilarating  atmosphere,  a  constant  azure  above  her 
head,  and  a  boundless  territory  beneath  her  feet.  I 
believe  that  she  is  linked  with  us  of  the  Old  World 
in  the  bonds  of  a  manly  and  of  a  righteous  friendship, 
and  that  by  the  blessing  of  God's  peculiar  grace,  you 
with  us  and  we  with  you  shall  be  so  enabled  to  work 
out  a  new  world  for  the  glory  and  happiness  of  mankind, 
that  hoary-headed  selfishness  shall  feel  his  death-blow 
and  go  reeling  to  his  grave,  and  many  of  the  vilest  evils 
which  have  hitherto  afflicted  the  corporate  life  of  man 
shall  live  but  in  the  memory  of  time,  which,  like  the 
penitent  libertine,  shall  start,  look  back,  and  shudder  at 
his  earlier  errors." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS 

Farrar's  books  are  before  the  world  to  be  judged  on 
their  merits.  They  do  not,  of  course,  appeal  to  all  alike  ; 
but,  in  so  far  as  popularity  is  a  true  measure  of  worth, 
his  reputation  may  be  safely  left  to  the  verdict  of  the 
public.  That  his  teaching  has  been  spiritually  helpful 
to  thousands,  is  proved  not  only  by  the  enormous  de- 
mand in  all  parts  of  the  world  for  such  works  as  "The 
Life  of  Christ,"  "The  Life  of  St.  Paul,"  and  "Eternal 
Hope,"  but  by  the  fact  that  during  a  long  course  of 
years  never  a  week,  hardly  a  day,  passed  without  his 
receiving,  from  learned  and  simple  alike,  earnest  letters 
expressing  the  heartfelt  gratitude  of  the  writers  for  in- 
struction, help,  and  comfort  derived  from  his  books  and 
sermons.  Hundreds  of  such  letters  exist,  of  which  I 
have  only  been  able  to  find  space  for  a  few  examples. 

But  the  point  which  I  wish  now  to  emphasize  is  that 
there  was  in  his  teaching  a  sympathetic  quality,  an  ele- 
ment of  psychic  magnetism,  which  impelled  many  to 
whom  he  was  personally  a  stranger  to  look  upon  him 
as  an  unknown  father  confessor  and  to  write  to  him, 
from  time  to  time,  letters  confiding  their  spiritual 
doubts,  difficulties,  and  aspirations,  or  the  most  inti- 
mate problems  of  their  lives.  Such  letters,  though 
they  added  much  to  the  burden  of  a  heavy  corre- 
spondence, my  father,  who  was  one  of  the  most  kind 

302 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS  303 


and  generous  of  men,  and  grudged  neither  time  nor 
trouble  in  the  service  of  his  fellows,  never  failed  to 
answer,  if  only  in  a  few  well-chosen  words  of  earnest 
sympathy  or  helpful  advice. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Brooks,  a  correspondent  from 
India,  who,  though  he  had  never  seen  his  beloved 
teacher,  yet  wrote  to  him  every  year  or  even  oftener  to 
acknowledge  his  spiritual  indebtedness  to  his  works,  I 
am  permitted  to  print  the  following  letter,  which  well 
illustrates  this  gracious  quality  of  accessibility  in  my 
father. 

"When  on  the  23d  of  March  I  saw  the  brief  notice 
in  the  Morning  Post  —  an  Indian  paper — that  'Dean 
Farrar  is  dead,'  the  shock  was  so  real  that  I  went  about 
for  days  after  as  one  who  had  received  a  heavy  blow ! 

"  You  would  not  wonder  at  it  if  I  could  convince  you 
of  what  your  venerable  father  had  been  to  me.  So  far 
back  as  twenty-one  years  ago  it  was  through  him  that 
I  was  brought,  while  reading  'Eternal  Hope,'  to  the 
feet  of  the  Saviour  whose  life  he  had  so  uniquely  por- 
trayed, and  for  whose  sake  he  was  ever  pleading  with 
such  strength  and  beauty. 

"  I  have  never  left  India,  and  hence  it  was  never  my 
privilege  to  see  the  Dean  ;  but  he  has  been  at  once  so 
ennobling  and  elevating  a  character  to  me,  and  has  ever 
been  so  accessible  and  gracious,  that  he  allowed  me  to 
feel  as  if  he  knew  me  perfectly  well. 

"  Eighteen  years  ago  I  could  not  resist  writing  to  him 
and  begging  him  to  enrich  me  with  his  photograph. 
That  picture  for  a  long  time  now  has  been  the  sole 
adornment  of  my  study  table,  and  to-day  it  stands 
below  a  ledge  holding  over  fifty  volumes  from  the  pen 
of  him  whose  likeness  this  is.    Two  years  later  my 


* 


304  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

request  to  publish  two  of  the  Canon's  sermons  —  one  on 
the  Salvation  Army,  the  other  on  the  Luther  Com- 
memoration—  was  acceded  to  with  the  same  old-time 
grace  and  courtesy. 

"  It  was  so  good  of  him  that  he  never  failed  to  reply 
to  a  letter.  I  wrote  to  him  once,  sometimes  twice, 
every  year,  and  without  a  single  failure,  and  punctually 
by  return  mail,  the  cheering,  comforting,  inspiring  an- 
swer would  come.  Precious  as  these  letters  undoubt- 
edly are,  they  are  doubly  more  so  when  I  remember  that 
with  an  environment  of  incessant  pressure  and  a  thou- 
sand calls  on  his  time,  the  Dean  yet  would  reward  every 
one  with  an  autograph  answer.  If  punctuality  is  the 
politeness  of  kings,  accessibility  is,  if  anything,  a  higher 
virtue ;  and  how  preeminently  both  these  shine  out  in 
Dean  Farrar,  while  it  seems  an  impertinence  to  empha- 
size it,  is  what  I  could  humbly  bear  very  strong  testi- 
mony to. 

"He  once  wrote,  '  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  know  that 
one  whom  I  have  never  seen  .  .  .  entertains  a  kind 
feeling  for  me.'  How  characteristic  a  remark,  when  I 
could  frame  everything  I  have  had  from  him  in  gold ! 

"Another  letter  —  a  very  short  one  indeed  —  betok- 
ens the  pressure  of  his  surroundings :  — 

"'House  of  Commons,  August  8,  1892. 

" '  Dear  Mr.  Brooks  :  I  write  this  line  to  offer  you 
sincere  thanks  for  your  birthday  congratulations  re- 
ceived this  morning.    May  God  be  with  you.' 

"  Here  is  a  quotation  from  another  letter  —  also  dat- 
ing from  the  House  of  Commons  —  which  has  been  as 
a  guiding  star  to  me  in  my  profession  of  life. 

'"It  rejoices  me  to  know  that  you  have  attained  so 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS  305 


useful  and  blessed  a  post  as  that  of  Head  master  of  so 
large  a  school.  It  is  a  most  important  and  respon- 
sible opportunity  of  doing  good  to  those  who  are  the 
trustees  of  posterity,  and  you  can  render  no  service  to 
God  more  valuable  than  that  of  trying  to  win  to  faith 
and  true  holiness  the  hearts  of  the  young.' 

"Would  it  occasion  any  surprise  if  I  said  that  my 
duties  have  received  quite  a  new  shape  as  I  try  to  per- 
form them  in  the  light  cf  these  words  ? 

"  I  owe,  and  my  family  owe,  to  this  scholar-saint  what 
we  cannot  even  faintly  acknowledge.  My  youngest 
brother  and  my  eldest  boy  are  both  called  '  Farrar,'  and 
they  are  conscious  that  the  name  is  an  incentive  to  the 
doing  of  all  that  is  '  lovely  and  honourable  and  of  good 
report.' 

"Almost  the  last  letter  I  had  from  the  Dean  con- 
cluded with  the  words,  '  I  offer  up  for  you  at  the  throne 
of  grace  an  earnest  prayer  that  God's  care  may  keep 
you  safe  from  all  evil.'  There  are  some  who  would  re- 
gard the  language  as  conventional ;  but  I  would  say,  in 
all  humility,  that  to  me  and  mine,  most  truly  the  prayers 
of  this  righteous  man  have  availed  much. 

"  You  would  not  accuse  me  of  egotism  for  writing  as 
I  have  done.  I  am  writing  to  a  son,  and  feel  I  cannot 
adequately  speak  of  the  goodness  of  the  father,  as  I 
experienced  it. 

"  Such  a  character  as  his  was,  could  only  be  happy  in 
blessing  others,  and  I  suppose  I  am  only  one  of  a  host 
who,  though  personally  unknown  to  Dean  Farrar,  still 
enjoyed  the  high  favour  of  his  counsel  and  the  benefit  of 
his  prayers.  His  was  a  large  heart,  and  he  was  always 
graciously  open  to  speak  to  everybody. 

"  It  is  in  and  through  such  men  that  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Christ  is  exalted,  and  sons  and  daughters  are  won 


306  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


to  Heaven.  Can  we  ever  be  sufficiently  grateful  to 
them,  or  exhaust  ourselves  in  expressing  our  deep  appre- 
ciation ?  «t.  Archd.  Brooks." 

I  have  also  ventured  to  give  anonymously,  and  with 
such  reservations  as  shall  secure  from  discovery  the  iden- 
tity of  the  writers,  a  few  letters  which  show  how  men  and 
women,  seeking  comfort  for  their  souls,  turned  instinc- 
tively for  help  to  the  author  whose  books  and  sermons 
had  been  to  them  as  dew  in  the  wilderness,  and  who 
felt  justly  confident  that  in  appealing  to  him  for  a  more 
personal  and  individual  measure  of  counsel  and  sym- 
pathy they  would  not  appeal  in  vain.  More  of  these 
letters,  many  of  them  human  documents  of  touching 
interest  and  pathos,  might  be  given,  if  space  per- 
mitted ;  I  think,  however,  these  are  enough  for  my  pres- 
ent purpose. 

"April  27,  1901. 

"  Mv  dear  Sir:  I  cannot  help  writing  just  a  few, 
lines  to  you,  to  say  how  very  glad  I  am  that  you  have 
got  through  your  severe  illness.  I  have  watched  the 
papers  every  day  to  see  how  you  were  going  on.  I  am 
so  glad  that  you  are  better.  I  do  hope  that  such  a 
great  man  as  you  will  long  be  spared  to  preach  and 
write  as  you  have  done.  I  have  a  few  of  your  books, 
some  of  them  written  thirty  years  ago,  'The  Silence 
and  Voices  of  God,'  '  Seekers  after  God,'  '  Eternal 
Hope.'  I  work  ten  hours  a  day  in  a  cotton-mill,  but 
never  a  week  passes  but  I  take  one  of  your  books  down 
and  read  some  portion  of  it.  They  are  really  charming 
to  me.  I  only  wish  that  I  could  go  and  hear  such  a 
man  speak  or  preach,  but  I  am  only  poor,  having  been 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS  307 


somewhat  unfortunate,  and  I  have  four  children  to  bring 
up ;  one  boy  I  am  trying  to  keep  at  school  till  he  is  put 
to  some  trade. 

"  But  I  shall  try  to  get  more  of  your  books  if  I  can, 
and  leave  them  to  my  boy,  and  tell  him  that  he  must 
read  such  books.  I  have  only  been  to  London  once,  a 
long  time  ago.  If  I  could  come  again  sometime,  I 
should  try  to  come  to  see  you  and  perhaps  hear  you 
preach,  about  which  I  have  read  so  much.  You  gave  an 
address  on  temperance  at  Oxford  a  long  time  ago,  the 
best  that  ever  I  read.  I  am  a  temperance  man,  never 
touches  drink  in  any  form.  Allow  me  to  say  again  how 
glad  I  am  that  you  are  better. 

"  I  am,  sir, 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  F.  S  ." 

"Dear  Sir:  I  am  a  Jew  by  birth,  and  have  given 
my  heart  to  Christ  through  your  work,  '  Life  of  Christ.' 
Twenty  times  I  have  read  the  chapter  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion, and  twenty  times  I  have  bitterly  weeped.  I  am 
a  Russian  Jew,  and  your  valuable  work  I  have  read  in 
Russian  language.  Being  persecuted  of  my  brethren, 
I  have  corned  in  London,  and  now  I  am  in  a  Christian 
establishment  for  converted  Jews.  But  my  medicin, 
what  has  lead  me  to  bliss,  I  cannot  forget,  and  now  being 
in  England  five  months,  I  have  wished  to  read  the  origi- 
nal of  '  Life  of  Christ.'  But  alas  !  I  cannot  find  it.  To 
buy  I  am  poor,  and  to  read  it  in  the  free  librias  I  have 
not  time  ;  have  I  decided  to  ask  of  you,  in  memory  of 
my  salvation,  the  book  'Life  of  Christ.'  I  trust  in  your 
Christian  love. 

"  Your  truly  disciple  in  mind, 

"Ben-Zion  Lensman." 


308 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  February  6,  1879. 

"  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  D.D. 

"  Well-beloved  though  unknown  friend  :  Although 
you  are  chaplain  to  the  Queen  of  England,  and  I  a  poor 
isolated,  world-hidden,  neglected  invalid,  I  cannot  help 
loving  you,  and  I  beg  you  to  lend  me  your  eye  and  heart 
a  few  moments. 

"  You  perhaps  remember  that  I  wrote  you  several 
years  ago,  when  you  were  yet  at  Marlborough.  Your  re- 
sponse, although  brief,  was  the  very  marrow  of  '  the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  Life,'  and  I  prize  it  above  rubies.  I  was  then 
clinging  in  remorse  and  torturing  apprehension  to  the 
edge  of  the  precipice  that  slopes  into  bottomless  perdi- 
tion. Your  letter  awakened  me  fully  to  a  sense  of  my 
ruin  and  the  absolute  necessity  of  an  immediate,  final, 
and  self-sacrificing  grapple  with  the  legion  of  devils 
which  had  taken  possession  of  me.  I  would  have  writ- 
ten to  you  sooner  in  acknowledgment  of  your  kindness, 
but  thought  it  best  to  defer  till  I  could  honestly  say  that, 
through  the  grace  of  Christ,  I  had  been  more  or  less 
victorious  over  my  enemies.  I  have  lost  many  a  battle 
since  you  wrote  me,  but  not  the  burning  desire  and  ever 
increasing  effort  to  be  more  than  conqueror  through 
Him  that  loved  me.  I  am  still  a  poor  sinner,  but  have 
broken  many  of  my  fetters,  and  hope,  through  grace, 
soon  to  be  the  Lord's  freeman. 

"  I  have  no  words  to  express  my  sense  of  the  great- 
ness and  grandeur  of  the  Christian  life  inspired  by  your 
writings.  Although  I  cannot  go  with  you  in  your  view 
of  the  ultimate  destiny  of  those  who  perish  in  their  sins, 
my  heart  has  gone  a  thousand  times  across  the  Atlantic 
in  warmly  affectionate  greetings  for  your  sweet,  lofty, 
soul-guiding,  soul-elevating  words." 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS  309 


"  Dear  Sir  :  I  write  to  you  in  awful  trouble,  because 
you  are  so  good  and  merciful.  Oh,  help  me  !  My  brother 
is  dead  —  has  destroyed  himself.  Not  on  purpose  — oh  ! 
do  not  think  that,  —  he  was  ill,  worried,  not  himself, 
and  in  a  moment  of  madness  it  was  done.  But  I  cannot 
bear  it,  cannot  be  resigned,  cannot  pray.  I  feel  as  if  I 
could  never  believe  in  God  or  love  Him  again. 

"  And  so  I  come  to  you,  because  you  believe  so  truly, 
because  you  are  so  sincere,  so  merciful ;  because  I  have 
more  faith  in  you  than  in  any  man  on  earth.  Oh!  if 
you  have  any  pity,  write  one  little  line  and  help  me.  I 
am  only  a  poor  weak  girl,  whom  you  have  never  met. 
But  you  will  forgive  me  because  I  am  crushed  with 
misery. 

"  Direct  to  ...  " 

"North  Dakota,  U.S.A. 

"  Reverend  Sir  :  Pardon  a  stranger  for  intruding 
upon  your  valuable  time,  and  believe  that  only  the  desire 
for  the  information  asked  for  below  prompts  me  to  do  so. 
Many  years  ago,  when  but  a  boy,  I  read,  in  some  publi- 
cation, the  name  of  which  I  have  forgotten,  a  sermon 
preached  by  you  at  Westminster.  The  text  was  John 
xvi.  9-1 1. 

"  It  sunk  deep  into  my  mind  and  fifteen  years  of  pioneer 
life  on  this  Western  frontier  have  not  effaced  the  domi- 
nant thought  of  it,  'Christ  judging  the  Prince  of  this 
world.'  I  have  tried  to  find  it  among  your  published 
works  in  this  country,  but  so  far  have  been  unsuccessful, 
hence  this  letter  to  you.  Will  you  please  inform  me 
where  I  can  procure  it,  either  in  pamphlet  form  or  among 
your  published  works  ?  I  have  your  '  Life  of  Christ,' 
'  Seekers  after  God,'  '  Early  Days  of  Christianity,'  and 
'In  the  Days  of  thy  Youth';  and  though  belonging  to 


3io  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


no  church,  those  books  have  often  steadied  me  by  their 
high  ideals  in  this  rushing  life  of  the  West,  when  other- 
wise I  might  have  gone  utterly  astray  ;  for  the  life  of  an 
attorney  —  my  profession  —  is  here  full  of  temptation. 

"  Trusting  that  you  will  not  think  me  too  presumptu- 
ous in  thus  trespassing  upon  you, 
"I  am,  sir, 

"  Respectfully  yours, 

«  S.  B.  M  * 

"  March  17,  1902. 

"Dear  Dr.  Farrar:  Though  an  insignificant  stranger, 
I  am  venturing  to  write  to  you,  as  I  would  like  you  to 
know  how  one  of  your  books  has  been  used  by  God. 

"  Some  five  years  ago,  I  gave  a  copy  of  your  '  Lord's 
Prayer '  to  a  lady  to  whose  sister  I  am  betrothed.  She 
lent  the  book,  humanly  speaking  by  chance,  to  a  friend, 
upon  whom  it  made  a  great  impression.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  new  life  for  him.  Of  course  he  had  gone 
through  certain  forms  before,  but  apparently  did  not 
have  any  real  love  for  Christ.  But  all  that  is  changed 
now,  and  I  know  from  my  own  personal  knowledge  that 
he  has  experienced  a  very  real  conversion.  He  has 
been  working  for  God  ever  since,  and  on  Saturday  night 
there  was  opened  at  Smithwicks  a  Gospel  Hall  which  he 
has  largely,  if  not  entirely,  built.  The  lady  I  mentioned 
went  to  the  opening  meeting,  when  about  five  hundred 
people  were  present.  The  gentleman  told  her  how 
rejoiced  he  was  that  God  had  so  blessed  his  efforts,  and 
added  this  sentence  —  '  All  through  Dean  Farrar's  book.' 

"Those  are  the  words  I  was  desirous  you  should 
know.  My  friend  has  joined  the  Plymouth  Brethren, 
whilst  I  am  as  keen  as  ever  upon  the  Church  of  England, 
but  I  know  you  will  agree  that  the  denomination  is  of 


BREAD  UPON  THE  WATERS  311 

secondary  importance,  —  that  the  belonging  to  the  real 
Church  of  Christ  is  the  essential  thing. 

"  Thanking  you  for  help  myself,  as  indeed  I  have  done 
before, 

"Yours  very  respectfully, 

«  e.  W.  J  .*' 

"  November  7,  1899. 

"  Reverend  and  dear  Sir  :  Loving  reverence  and 
deep  gratitude  constrain  me  now  to  write  thus  to  you, 
as  indeed  I  have  thought  of  doing  for  some  years  past. 

"  Amid  all  the  work  in  which  you  are  engaged  for  God 
and  His  Church,  and  among  the  many  claims,  which 
even  perhaps  as  you  read  this  are  upon  thought  and 
time,  will  you  pause  for  a  brief  moment  to  receive  the 
thanks  of  one  who  owes,  perhaps  more  than  pen  and 
ink  may  express,  of  deep  and  earnest  thanks  for  all  the 
spiritual  and  intellectual  help  your  writings  have  been 
to  me. 

"  For  twenty  years  your  'Life  of  Christ,'  that  beauti- 
ful study  of  the  grandest  theme  that  has  ever  occupied 
the  mind  and  thought  of  man,  has  been  beside  my  Bag- 
ster's  Bible  almost  as  a  daily  text-book ;  and  I  want  to 
tell  you  that  some  years  ago,  when  for  months  I  was 
going  through  a  dark  time  of  doubt  and  soul-question- 
ing, when  through  looking  too  m?ich  at  Christians  repre- 
senting the  Christ,  I  had  lost  sight  of  Himself  for  a  time  : 
then  it  was  that  glancing  again  at  that  '  Life  of  Christ,' 
and  knowing  that  to  one  of  your  great  intellect  and 
questioning  mind,  Jesus  Christ  was  a  living  blessed- 
reality,  my  soul  found  anchor  and  my  heart  could  rest, 
in  spite  of  storm  and  stress.  God  bless  you,  dear  Dean 
Farrar,  and  reward  you  ten-thousand  fold  by  flooding 
and  filling  your  heart  with  that  same  rest  and  peace. 


312 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


"  Then  since  the  '  mists  have  rolled  away '  your  other 
books  have  been  a  great  joy  to  me.  ...  '  From  Dark- 
ness to  Dawn '  I  have  read  and  re-read,  for  it  opens  up 
that  page  of  history  in  an  intensely  fascinating  way. 
My  children  like  it  better  than  any  of  their  story-books. 
I  am  reading  now  to  my  three  little  girls  at  home,  on 
Sunday  afternoons,  '  Gathering  Clouds,'  to  which  they 
look  forward  with  much  pleasure.  And  though  you  may 
smile  at  her  precociousness,  the  youngest,  who  is  only  six, 
is  deeply  interested  in  the  story  of  Philip  and  Eutyches 
entwined  with  the  history  of  the  great  Chrysostom.  .  .  . 
You  will  forgive  my  telling  you  all  this,  but  I  thought 
you  would  like  to  know  how  the  children  love  your  books, 
as  well  as  those  of  a  larger  growth. 

"  With  many  apologies  for  thus  trespassing  on  your 
time,  and  with  earnest  prayer  that  our  God  may  spare 
you  yet  for  years  to  His  church,  which  has  so  much 
need  of  your  faithful  voice  and  fearless  pen,  and  with 
deep  and  affectionate  gratitude, 

"  I  am,  dear  and  Reverend  Sir, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

«  c.  K.  T  ." 

"Will  the  Dean  allow  a  woman  to  whom  his  writings 
gave  great  help  and  light  doctrinally  (twenty  years  ago, 
and  more,  now),  to  thank  him  again,  not  only  for  that 
but  for  more  personal  comfort  and  strengthening  in  a 
time  of  spiritual  depression — which  she  has  received 
from  hearing  his  rendering  of  the  lessons  lately,  in  the 
Morning  Prayer  at  the  Cathedral  ?  As  a  pastor  of 
souls,  he  will,  she  trusts,  think  it  no  intrusion  on  her 
part,  to  tell  him  of  this  good  gift  which  God  has  sent 
through  him." 


CHAPTER  XIV 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY 

In  1895  my  father  was  nominated  by  Lord  Rosebery 
to  the  Deanery  of  Canterbury,  rendered  vacant  by  the 
death  of  Dean  Payne-Smith.  Although  its  acceptance 
involved  a  considerable  sacrifice  of  income,  having  lived 
to  see  most  of  his  sons  and  daughters  settled  in  life, 
he  had  little  hesitation  in  accepting  the  appointment. 
Canterbury  is  the  premier  Deanery  of  England,  and  the 
new  Dean,  the  thirty-first  since  the  Reformation,  took 
over  the  rule  of  the  great  Cathedral,  imbued  with  a 
profound  sense  of  the  value  to  the  Church  of  England 
of  its  historic  associations. 

An  extract  from  his  inaugural  sermon  may  be  given  to 
illustrate  the  spirit  in  which  he  assumed  his  new  duties, 
and  his  high  ideal  of  the  Cathedral  as  a  factor  in  the 
life  and  thought  of  the  nation  :  — 

"  Canterbury  Cathedral  surpasses  even  Westminster 
Abbey  in  the  closeness  of  its  connection  with  the  eccle- 
siastical history  of  the  English  race.  What  the  Abbey 
is  for  the  history  of  the  English  nation,  that  the  Cathe- 
dral is  for  the  history  of  the  English  Church.  It  has  its 
memories  of  Henry  II  and  of  Edward  III,  and  its 
tomb  of  Henry  IV,  and  relics  of  the  flower  of  English 
chivalry.  Here  lie  many  of  the  English  Primates ;  here 
are  concentrated  the  memories  of  thirteen  centuries  of 
our  Church's  history  —  memories  of  St.  Augustine  of 

313 


314  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Canterbury,  and  the  Bretwalda  Ethelbert ;  of  St.  Dun- 
stan  and  King  Edvvy ;  of  St.  Alphege  and  the  Danes ; 
of  Lanfranc  and  the  Conqueror;  of  St.  Anselm  and 
William  Rufus ;  of  St.  Thomas  a  Becket  and  Henry  II ; 
of  Stephen  Langton  and  Magna  Charta ;  of  Chaucer 
and  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims ;  of  St.  Edmund  of  Canter- 
bury (one  of  the  loveliest  of  our  holy  examples);  of 
Archbishop  Parker  and  Queen  Elizabeth ;  of  William 
III  and  the  saintly  Tillotson  ;  of  the  tragic  martyrdoms 
and  violent  deaths  of  Archbishop  Sudbury,  of  Arch- 
bishop Alphege,  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud. 

"  And  every  English  Cathedral,  by  its  structural  mag- 
nificence and  its  historic  reminiscences,  is  a  noble  wit- 
ness for  two  most  precious  heritages  of  the  Church  of 
God :  the  continuity  of  worship  and  the  continuity  of 
faith. 

"  These  glorious  cathedrals  evinced  the  intensity  of 
that  belief,  stimulating  a  princely  munificence  which 
must  almost  be  said  to  exist  no  more.  We  do  not,  and 
could  not,  alas !  in  these  days  build  Canterbury  Cathe- 
drals or  Westminster  Abbeys,  though  they  were  built, 
not  by  a  nation  of  thirty-nine  million,  but  by  a  nation 
of  less  than  five  million,  which  is  now  the  population  of 
London  alone,  and  they  were  built  by  a  nation  of  which 
the  wealth  was  but  a  drop  compared  to  the  Pactolus  of 
riches  which  now  rolls  into  our  coffers  over  its  sands 
of  gold.  They  are  the  costly  legacy  from  the  poor  ages 
of  faith  to  the  wealthy  ages  of  selfishness.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  in  those  days  —  in  spite  of  error,  igno- 
rance, and  superstition  —  the  saints  of  God  held  their 
faith  with  a  more  burning  and  self-sacrificing  conviction 
than  in  these  more  feverish  and  worldly  times.  Happy 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  315 

is  it  for  us  that  their  faith  has  been  eternised  in  these 
lovely  legacies,  for  — 

"  They  dreamt  not  of  a  perishable  home 
Who  thus  could  build.    Be  mine,  in  hours  of  fear, 
Or  grovelling  thought,  to  seek  a  refuge  here ; 
Or  thro'  the  aisles  of  Westminster  to  roam, 
Where  bubbles  burst,  and  folly's  dancing  foam 
Melts  if  it  cross  the  threshold. 

"  Only  let  us  all,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  be 
of  one  mind,  —  that  without  sincerity,  without  reverence, 
without  thoroughness,  without  attention,  there  can  be 
no  acceptable  service,  no  beauty  of  holiness.  The  in- 
cense will  but  smoulder  distressfully  on  the  altar  if  it  be 
not  enkindled  with  the  flame  of  true  devotion.  Oh,  let 
no  familiarity,  let  no  frequency  in  our  services,  cause 
them  to  sink  into  mere  idle  functions.  Let  our  songs, 
our  anthems,  our  services,  our  Scripture  lessons,  our 
sermons,  always  mean  something ;  let  no  professional- 
ism, no  careless  lolling,  lounging  indifference,  or  lack  of 
due  reverence,  ever  degrade  their  pure  gold  into  odious 
dross;  and  even  you,  my  boys  of  the  choir,  —  in  whose 
present  happiness  and  future  welfare  I  shall  always  feel 
a  deep  interest,  —  difficult  as  I  know  the  effort  may 
often  be  to  you,  yet  learn  habitually  to  regard  this  sa- 
cred scene  as  '  the  place  of  angels  and  archangels,  the 
Court  of  God  and  the  image  of  heaven.'  Never  whis- 
per together ;  never  stare  about  you  to  right  or  to  left 
as  you  enter  this  holy  place  ;  never  enter  in  a  straggling 
or  irregular  manner.  Let  no  wandering  thoughts  taint 
with  worldliness  or  sin  the  prayers  and  praises  which 
will  be  so  blessed  if  you  learn  to  offer  them  with  a  pure 
heart  fervently.  May  God  take  you  under  His  gracious 
care  and  keeping,  and  make  you,  in  heart  as  well  as  in 
name,  the  children  of  His  Sanctuary  ! 


316  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

"  But,  apart  from  its  architectural  glory,  and  beyond 
the  sphere  of  its  daily  worship,  a  Cathedral  should  be 
an  impulse,  a  source  of  elevation,  '  a  centre  of  all  civilis- 
ing influences,  material,  intellectual,  social,  in  the  world 
around  it.'  The  City,  the  Diocese,  the  whole  Church 
of  God,  should  rejoice  in  it,  and  be  the  better  for  it. 
Each  separate  class  and  guild  of  Art  and  Science,  of 
Commerce  and  Soldiership,  of  Philanthropy  and  Educa- 
tion, as  well  as  all  ranks  and  degrees  of  our  ordinary 
life,  should  look  to  it  as  a  source  of  strength.  It  should 
extend  a  sympathetic  love  and  generous  influence  to  the 
young  ;  the  boys  and  girls  who  grow  up  under  its  purple 
shadows  should  be  the  better  in  life,  and  the  richer  in 
memories,  from  its  influence.  Sometimes,  at  least,  it 
should  gather  the  little  ones  of  Christ  under  its  roof  in 
the  Name  of  Him  who  loved  them,  took  them  up  in  His 
arms,  laid  His  hands  upon  them,  and  blessed  them." 

What  the  Dean  did  for  the  structure  of  the  Cathedral 
is  briefly  told  by  my  brother,  the  Rev.  Ivor  Farrar,  in 
the  following  narrative  :  — 

"  Like  many  another  English  Dean,  Dr.  Farrar  had 
to  bear  the  punishment  for  the  negligence  of  those  who 
preceded  him.  During  the  palmy  days  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  the  Dean  received  .£10,000  a  year,  the 
Cathedral  buildings  had  been  suffered  to  fall  into  sad 
decay.  Then  followed  the  days  of  agricultural  depres- 
sion, and  the  stipend  of  the  Dean  dropped  to  £1000  a 
year,  and  tottering  walls  and  leaking  roofs  called  loudly 
for  a  fabric  fund  to  save  them  from  utter  ruin.  The 
work  of  preservation  had  been  begun  by  Dean  Payne- 
Smith,  but  he  had  only  appealed  to  the  county  of  Kent, 
too  poor  to  render  much  assistance.  On  his  appoint- 
ment in  1895,  Dean  Farrar  issued  a  wider  appeal  to  all 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  317 


churchmen  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  their  premier  Cathe- 
dral. .£20,000  was  needed  for  absolutely  necessary  work, 
and  by  three  years  of  incessant  and  ungrudging  labour 
Dr.  Farrar  raised  some  £19,000,  which  with  care  was 
made  sufficient  to  carry  out  the  greater  part  of  his  de- 
signs. Of  this  large  sum  the  main  portion  was  spent  on 
work  which  made  no  show,  and  could  only  appeal  to 
genuine  lovers  of  the  old  Cathedral.  The  roof  of  the 
Chapter-house,  the  Cloisters,  and  portions  of  the  Nave 
had  to  be  releaded  before  anything  else  could  be  thought 
of,  and  only  a  small  sum  was  left  to  restore  the  Crypt 
and  Chapter-house  to  something  of  their  ancient  beauty. 
In  the  Chapter-house  the  neglect  of  centuries  was  pain- 
fully apparent.  The  ancient  ceiling,  once  gorgeous  in 
blue  and  scarlet  and  gold,  and  bearing  on  its  bosses  the 
escutcheons  of  the  pious  donors  who  had  helped  to 
build  the  Cathedral,  was  in  a  lamentable  and  even  dan- 
gerous state  of  decay ;  the  rain  swept  in  through  the 
broken  windows,  and  the  walls  streamed  with  moisture. 
In  commemoration  of  the  thirteenth  centenary  of  Augus- 
tine's mission,  the  Freemasons  of  Kent  filled  the  great 
East  window  with  stained  glass,  depicting  the  heroes  and 
benefactors  of  Canterbury  from  Augustine  and  Bertha 
of  the  sixth  century  down  to  Victoria  and  Benson  of  the 
nineteenth.  The  ceiling  was  restored  to  its  ancient  col- 
ours and  design,  the  remaining  windows  were  reglazed, 
and  a  new  floor  replaced  the  old  and  broken  tiles. 

"  The  Crypt  was  in  a  yet  more  pitiable  condition.  A 
long  wall  running  east  and  west  cut  off  the  south  aisle 
from  the  rest  of  the  Crypt,  which  is  the  largest  in  Eu- 
rope :  the  windows  were  unglazed,  and  the  floor  was  two 
feet  above  its  proper  level.  The  result  of  Dean  Far- 
rar's  restoration  enables  the  tourists  of  to-day  to  see  the 
fine  proportions  of  the  Crypt  as  they  existed  in  the  days 


3i« 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


of  King  Henry  VIII,  without  however  the  rich  votive 
offerings  which  once  made  the  chapel  of  '  Our  Lady  of 
the  Undercroft '  the  wealthiest  treasure  chamber  in  Eng- 
land. The  side  Chapel  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Innocents 
was  furnished  for  occasional  services.  There  was  much 
else  that  Dean  Farrar  wished  to  do.  He  had  it  in  his 
heart  to  make  a  marble  floor  for  the  choir,  to  repolish 
the  lovely  marble  pillars  in  the  Trinity  Chapel,  and  to 
fill  the  west  window  of  the  Chapter-house  with  stained 
glass.  All  this  still  remains  for  another  Dean  of  Can- 
terbury to  do ;  but  the  paintings  which  adorn  the  screen 
above  the  Holy  Table,  the  splendid  brass  Communion 
rails,  the  mosaic  floor  of  the  Sanctuary,  and  the  beauty 
and  reverence  of  the  Cathedral  services  bear  eloquent 
witness  to  the  high  zeal  of  the  great  and  saintly  Dean, 
who  thus  sought  to  make  the  House  of  God  '  exceeding 
magnifical.' " 

My  father's  loving  care  of  the  structure  of  Canterbury 
Cathedral  was  the  outcome,  not  only  of  his  characteris- 
tic zeal  for  the  structure  of  God's  House,  which  he  had 
before  so  effectively  exercised  at  Marlborough  and  at 
St.  Margaret's,  but  also  of  the  ideal,  which  he  felt  so 
profoundly,  and  constantly  strove  to  make  others  realise, 
of  the  Cathedral  as  the  living  centre  of  social  and  spirit- 
ual life  in  the  city. 

At  Canterbury,  my  father,  by  constant  personal  at- 
tendance and  unceasing  exercise  of  personal  influence, 
strove  to  bring  it  about  that  the  daily  services  in  the 
Cathedral  should  be  not  only  reverently  and  seemly 
conducted,  but  imbued  with  the  living  spirit  of  worship ; 
and,  further,  that  every  citizen  in  Canterbury  should 
realise  and  take  pride  in  the  Cathedral  as  part  of  his 
own  inheritance. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  319 


The  impression  contributed  by  an  American  to  the 
American  Sunday  School  Times  may  be  introduced  here 
as  giving  an  adequate  portrait  of  the  Dean  in  his 
Cathedral. 

"  So  many  Americans  have  had  much  more  than  a 
glimpse  of  the  famous  Dean  of  Canterbury  that  there 
might  seem  to  be  no  reason  for  writing  this  impression 
of  a  Sunday  afternoon  at  Canterbury.  Yet  somehow 
that  service,  with  all  that  went  to  make  it  up,  has  always 
remained  fixed  in  memory  as  one  of  the  whole  and  per- 
fect impressions  of  my  life.  I  had  been  on  '  a  cathedral 
tour '  on  the  Continent,  but  the  English  cathedrals,  after 
all,  had  been  the  ones  which  I  always  figured  to  myself 
in  the  years  when  I  kept  hoping  that  some  day  I  should 
see  cathedrals. 

"  Canterbury  was  my  first  in  England,  and  not  one 
single  element  of  all  that  my  boyish  and  later  imagina- 
tion had  pictured  out  to  me  as  the  proper  circumstance 
and  atmosphere  of  a  cathedral  was  wanting.  The  altar, 
the  highest  and  remotest  I  ever  saw,  gleamed  off  and 
up  in  the  distance  with  its  lights.  The  congregation 
was  made  up  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the  earth, 
among  whom,  here  and  there,  appeared  the  bright- 
coated  soldiers.  I  remember  the  face  of  one  of  them 
now.  All  around  us  were  the  tombs,  and  just  beyond 
the  screen,  at  the  foot  of  the  steps,  the  Martyrdom. 
The  organ  broke  the  silence  now  and  then  with  one 
of  those  restless,  preliminary  groanings  which  make  an 
organ  seem  like  a  living  thing,  and  then,  beginning 
softly,  I  heard  on  the  stone  flags  of  the  aisles  in  the  dis- 
tance the  scuff  of  the  feet  of  the  choir  as  they  came 
down  for  the  service. 

"  At  the  end  of  the  procession  came  Dean  Farrar, 
and  for  the  time  Canterbury  summed  itself  up  for  me  in 


320  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


him,  just  as  Westminster  always  does  in  Stanley.  The 
thing  that  impressed  me  about  him  most,  and  at  once, 
was  his  apparently  utter  obliviousness  of  himself  or  his 
position.  The  Dean  walked  on  to  his  place,  with  his 
head  bowed,  and  seemingly  with  no  sense  of  being 
anything  but  a  part  of  it  all.  Professor  Palmer  says 
that  one  of  the  signs  of  being  spiritually  mature  is  in 
feeling  that  one  is  only  a  part.  Well,  then,  I  never  saw 
a  great  man  in  a  great  position  from  whose  whole  being 
that  feeling  seemed  to  go  forth  as  from  Dean  Farrar. 
He  was  evidently  at  his  own  disposal  for  that  service, 
and  wholly  so.  The  service  was  all ;  he  was  simply 
a  part. 

"  But  the  crowning  impression  for  me  that  afternoon 
was  when  the  time  came  for  the  second  lesson,  which,  I 
believe,  is  always  read  by  the  Dean,  when  he  is  present, 
as  his  regular  part  of  the  service.  In  the  same  absorbed 
manner,  as  if  seeing  nothing  around  him,  but  wholly 
devoted  to  the  thing  he  was  doing,  he  went  up  to  the 
reading-desk,  found  the  lesson  of  the  day,  and  began  to 
read  words  which,  of  all  Scripture,  were  to  me  the  most 
perfect  and  wonderful  to  express  what  I  was  feeling, 
and  which  said  out  the  very  heart  of  an  occasion,  as 
words  had  never  said  for  me  before,  '  Wherefore,  seeing 
we  also  are  compassed  about  with  so  great  a  cloud  of 
witnesses.'  I  sat  spellbound  by  the  appropriateness  of 
it  all,  and  feeling  something  beyond  good  fortune  in  my 
being  there  the  day  on  which  that  lesson  fell.  And  now 
Dean  Farrar  is  one  of  the  witnesses,  but  I  shall  always 
think  of  him  as  he  stood  reading  those  words. 

—  John  Sheridan  Zelic." 

The  Dean  kept  in  warm  touch,  through  the  Mayor 
and  Corporation,  with  the  municipal  life  of  Canterbury ; 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  321 


through  his  friends  Colonel  Abadie  and  Colonel  Frith, 
and  subsequently  through  his  friend  —  an  old  Harrow 
pupil  —  Colonel  Hegan,  with  the  soldiers  in  the  barracks, 
who  after  his  death  testified  their  respect  by  volunteering 
to  line  the  nave  at  his  funeral ;  with  St.  Augustine's 
College ;  with  the  parish  churches  of  Canterbury ;  with 
the  hospital;  with  every  organisation  for  good  in  the 
old  city. 

For  one  instance,  —  he  revived  an  old  kindly  custom, 
which  had  fallen  into  desuetude,  that  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  should  go  down  into  the  nave  and  shake  hands 
with  each  member  of  the  congregation  at  the  close  of 
the  evening  service  on  Christmas  Day.  How  much  this 
custom  was  valued  by  the  citizens,  and  its  effect  in  giv- 
ing a  sense  of  personal  relation  between  the  Cathedral 
body  and  the  humblest  worshippers,  the  following  letter 
will  show :  — 

"  '  Cheer  up,  mother !  Please  God  I  shall  be  with  you 
again  Christmas  Day  and  shake  the  dear  Dean's  hand 
again.' 

"  '  Ah !  mother,  I  so  often  think  of  our  Sunday  even- 
ings, when  I  see  in  the  "Press"  that  the  dear  Dean  is 
going  to  preach  ! ' 

"  My  first  sentence  was  uttered  on  the  platform  of 
the  S.  E.  R.  Station  at  Canterbury,  when  my  dear  boy 
started  for  South  Africa,  where  after  a  few  months'  service 
he  succumbed  to  enteric  fever ;  the  other  sentence  is  an 
extract  from  my  boy's  letter  who  is  serving  with  his 
regiment  in  Burmah.  My  youngest  boy  is  a  member  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  a  constant  attendant  at  the  Bible 
Classes,  and  I  feel  sure  that,  after  God,  we  are  indebted 
to  Dean  Farrar  for  the  influence  his  sermons  (more 
particularly  the  course  preached  on  the  '  Prodigal  Son ' ) 
have  had  on  the  lives  of  these  boys.    May  God  help  the 


322  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


Dean  and  spare  him  long  to  minister  in  the  Cathedral 
he  has  done  so  much  to  beautify  !  tt  

"  Christmas,  1901." 

At  Canterbury  his  perennial  love  of  young  people 
found  ample  and  beautiful  scope.  His  numerous  grand- 
children whose  highest  privilege  was  a  visit  to  the 
Deanery  ;  the  boys  of  King  Edward's  School ;  the  boys 
of  the  Simon  Langton  Schools;  the  boys  of  the  Cathedral 
choir ;  and  most  of  all  perhaps  the  boys  of  the  King's 
School,  —  on  all  these  he  lavished  the  paternal  affection 
which  was  one  of  his  best  characteristics  and  which  con- 
tact with  the  young  never  failed  to  elicit. 

An  extract  from  some  reminiscences  contributed  by 
my  brother,  Ivor  Farrar,  to  an  article  in  the  British 
Monthly,  which  the  editor  has  courteously  allowed  me  to 
quote,  gives  a  good  picture  of  this  side  of  his  Canterbury 
life :  — 

"  No  mention  of  my  father's  work  at  Canterbury  would 
be  complete  without  an  allusion  to  his  work  among  the 
boys  of  the  King's  School  and  Cathedral  choir,  for  he 
had  a  wonderful  gift  of  imparting  to  boys  his  own  im- 
mense love  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
literature.  The  boys  were  frequent  guests  at  the 
Deanery.  Four  of  the  senior  boys  were  invited  to  break- 
fast every  Sunday  morning,  while  the  younger  boys 
were  invited  during  the  summer  months  to  tea  in  the 
garden.  I  was  always  struck  by  the  high  tone  which  he 
gave  to  the  conversation  among  these  boys.  He  spoke 
of  the  past  history  of  the  Cathedral,  of  the  stories  of 
great  and  noble  men  in  all  ages  and  countries,  and  of 
the  poets,  especially  his  four  supreme  favourites  — 
Milton,  Dante,  Coleridge,  Tennyson.    He  never  cared 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  323 


to  talk  of  things  of  merely  passing  interest;  but  how- 
ever deep  the  subject  might  be,  he  never  failed  to  make 
it  intelligible  even  to  boys  of  thirteen  and  fourteen. 
Still  more  wonderful  was  his  influence  among  the  little 
boys  of  the  Cathedral  choir.  My  father  dreaded  lest 
their  frequent  attendance  at  long  Cathedral  services 
should  make  their  religion  formal  and  unreal.  To 
avert  this  danger,  he  devoted  Sunday  afternoons,  from 
two  to  three,  to  teaching  them  himself.  Other  and 
less  great  men  would  have  taken  such  a  class  without 
any  special  preparation  ;  but  on  Monday  morning  the 
Dean  began  thinking  of  next  Sunday's  class,  and  he  de- 
voted a  portion  of  every  day  to  preparing  for  it.  After 
his  strength  began  to  fail,  I  was  often  able  to  help  him 
by  reading  aloud  to  him  when  his  poor  hands  were  too 
weak  to  hold  a  book,  or  even  turn  a  page.  And  I  noticed 
that  Driver,  Cheyne,  Stanley,  Ellicott,  and  Westcott  were 
only  a  few  of  the  books  used  in  preparing  to  teach  these 
little  boys  of  twelve  and  under.  Still  more  remarkable, 
when  the  lesson  came  to  be  given,  the  learned  comments 
of  great  scholars  had  become  delightful  stories,  full  of. 
life  and  thrilling  interest,  with  lessons  that  any  boy  could 
both  understand  and  use.  The  choir  boys  never  failed 
to  enjoy  his  class,  and  the  very  last  piece  of  work  which 
my  father  did  on  earth  was  preparing  for  this  class  the 
night  before  he  died  !  " 

The  following  testimony  by  a  King's  School  boy  is 
taken  from  the  obituary  notice  to  The  Cantuarian:  — 

"  He  ever  took  the  kindest  interest  in  our  work  and 
in  our  play.  His  delight  at  the  success  of  some  indi- 
vidual member  of  the  school  was  unbounded.  His 
words  of  consolation  and  encouragement  have  many 
a  time  —  we  speak  from  experience  —  taken  away  the 


324 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


bitterness  of  failure.  Those  who  were  privileged  to 
enjoy  the  hospitality  of  his  house  —  and  they  were  not 
few  —  will  count  as  some  of  the  happiest  in  their  lives 
those  hours  spent  in  the  quiet  bowling  green,  or  over 
the  chess  board,  or  walking  along  the  old  city  wall  while 
the  Dean  advised  and  counselled  or  poured  lavishly 
forth  from  his  wonderful  fund  of  anecdotes.  Often, 
too,  the  monotony  of  the  sick  house  was  relieved  by 
a  visit  from  the  Dean,  and  if  he  was  unable  to  come 
himself  he  would  send  round  some  dainty  for  the  in- 
mates with  kind  and  thoughtful  messages.  For  O.  K.  S. 
he  maintained  the  same  regard  as  he  had  for  the  school. 
He  was  ever  anxious  to  hear  of  their  doings,  and  re- 
joiced in  their  successes. 

"  Many  have  heard  him  say  that  at  his  death  the 
names  of  Marlborough,  Harrow,  and  our  own  King's 
School  would  be  found  written  on  his  heart.  We  feel 
sure  that  his  name  will  ever  be  treasured  in  the  hearts 
of  all  King  Scholars." 

A  sidelight  on  his  enthusiasm  for  the  young  is  given 
in  the  following  letter  to  one  of  my  sisters :  — 

"The  Deanery,  Canterbury,  July  8th. 

"  My  darling  Lilian  :  Just  now  I  am  unusually 
pressed  with  work,  and  the  Garden  Party,  with  its  three 
hundred  guests,  drove  out  of  my  head  my  loving  con- 
gratulations on  your  birthday.  I  need  not  tell  you,  my 
dear  child,  how  earnestly  I  wish  and  pray  that,  now 
and  ever,  God's  best  blessings  may  be  richly  outpoured 
upon  you,  making  you  very  happy  in  your  marriage, 
and  causing  your  life  to  be  most  useful  for  the  spread 
of  His  Kingdom. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  325 


"I  enclose  the  autograph,  and  with  kindest  regards  to 
John  and  Mrs.  Darlington,  I  am 

"  Your  very  loving  father, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar. 

"  We  had  such  a  happy  function  at  the  Cathedral 
yesterday.  More  than  eight  hundred  boys  and  girls 
from  the  Sunday  Schools  came,  sang  hymns,  and  I 
gave  them  a  ten  minutes'  talk  on  Missions.  They  pro- 
cessed round  the  Cathedral  with  trumpets  and  banners, 
singing  hymns ! " 

Even  at  some  risk  of  overlapping,  I  give  here  three 
further  sketches  by  different  hands,  portraying  my 
father  as  Dean. 

The  first  is  an  appreciation  of  his  beloved  chief  con- 
tributed to  this  Memoir  by  his  devoted  colleague,  Canon 
Page  Roberts ;  the  second  an  extract  from  the  beautiful 
memorial  sermon  preached  on  Sunday,  March  29,  in 
Canterbury  Cathedral  by  a  colleague  no  less  loyal  and 
devoted,  Dr.  Mason,  Master  of  Pembroke  College, 
Cambridge ;  the  third  an  extract  contributed  by  my 
sister,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  J.  S.  Northcote,  to  the  British 
Monthly.  This  last  extract  refers  in  part  to  earlier 
periods  of  my  father's  life  with  which  I  have  already 
dealt,  but  I  could  not  find  it  in  my  heart  to  share  it  into 
fragments,  and  have  preferred  to  introduce  it  here  in  its 
entirety. 

Canon  Page  Roberts  writes  :  — 

"  I  had  only  known  Dr.  Farrar  slightly  before  he 
became  Dean  of  Canterbury.  Occasionally  we  chanced 
to  meet  in  London,  and  more  than  once  I  preached  for 
him  at  St.  Margaret's.   Soon  after  I  had  been  appointed 


326  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


to  a  Canonry  in  Canterbury  Cathedral  I  remember  say- 
ing to  him,  Archdeacon  of  Westminster  as  he  then  was, 
that  I  hoped  he  might  become  Dean  of  Canterbury, 
that  place  being  then  vacant.  He  shook  his  head  and 
with  an  air  of  depression  said  there  was  no  chance  of 
further  preferment  for  him.  It  had  long  been  felt  by 
many  that  both  Liberal  and  Conservative  Governments 
had  overlooked  the  preeminent  claims  which  Dr.  Farrar 
had  upon  the  highest  distinctions  of  the  Anglican  Church; 
that  both  Liberal  and  Conservative  Prime  Ministers 
deserved  blame  for  ignoring  such  merits  as  his  while 
elevating  less  distinguished  persons  to  the  highest  places. 
It  was  thought  by  many  that  he  was  best  qualified  to 
succeed  Stanley  in  the  Deanery  of  Westminster.  Lord 
Rosebery  removed  the  reproach  and  Dr.  Farrar  became 
Dean  of  Canterbury. 

"  It  was  as  though  a  load  of  suspicion  and  depreciation 
had  been  removed  from  his  shoulders,  as  though  his 
deserts,  so  long  disregarded,  had  at  length  been  acknow- 
ledged, that  Dr.  Farrar  entered  upon  his  new  position. 
Old  friends  and  acquaintances  perceived  in  him  an  un- 
usual contentment.  Eager  always  and  incessantly  active, 
he  had  now  the  air  of  cheerful  satisfaction.  At  this  time 
he  was  certainly  the  best-known  clergyman  in  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  Throughout  the  whole  land,  throughout 
the  whole  English-speaking  peoples,  his  name  was  famil- 
iar, the  brilliance  of  his  eloquence  known.  Wherever 
he  went  he  attracted  crowds  to  the  pulpits  from  which 
he  preached  and  the  platforms  from  which  he  spoke. 
Canterbury  felt  that  a  very  conspicuous  person  had 
come  to  occupy  the  decanal  stall,  was  proud  of  the  dis- 
tinction conferred  on  the  city,  and  at  once  was  fascinated 
by  the  fervour  of  his  splendid  rhetoric,  the  richness  of 
his  historic  knowledge,  and  the  high  moral  inspiration 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  327 


of  his  aims.  He  called  attention  to  the  Mother  Church 
of  England,  till  then  too  little  considered.  Looked  upon 
with  favour  by  his  Sovereign  and  the  Royal  family,  the 
King  and  Queen,  at  that  time  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Wales,  honoured  Canterbury  by  their  presence  at  the 
reopening  of  the  Chapter  house ;  and  many  eminent 
persons  visited  her,  attracted  by  his  urgent  appeals. 

"The  need  of  the  Cathedral  for  serious  structural 
repairs  was  felt  by  the  Chapter.  '  Our  holy  Mother 
Canterbury  sat  with  tattered  robes.'  The  revenues  of 
the  Cathedral  had  been  gradually  declining  while  the 
permanent  charges  remained  as  large  as  ever,  the  Dean 
and  Canons  alone  suffering  from  the  diminished  yearly 
income.  The  fabric  was  carefully  maintained  ;  but  there 
were  no  funds  available  for  large  structural  restoration. 
With  all  the  eagerness  and  pertinacity  of  his  nature  the 
new  Dean  initiated  a  movement  in  cooperation  with  the 
Canons  of  the  Cathedral  for  the  purpose  of  accomplish- 
ing the  necessary  work.  The  main  burden  of  collecting 
the  funds  required  was  undertaken  by  the  Dean.  To  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men  he  wrote,  setting  forth  the 
needs  of  the  Cathedral  and  its  historic  and  national 
claims.  Thousands  of  letters  he  wrote  with  his  own 
hands,  those  hands  so  soon  to  become  tremulous  and 
helpless.  To  our  kindred  across  the  Atlantic,  whose 
response  did  not  come  up  to  his  expectations,  to  whom 
we  may  say  the  Cathedral  belongs  as  well  as  to  our- 
selves, he  made  appeal.  From  week  to  week,  taxing 
a  strength  which  the  unresting  labour  of  years  had 
severely  tried,  he  preached  and  spoke  for  the  purpose 
on  which  he  had  set  his  heart.  From  one  end  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  other  he  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  Cathe- 
dral he  had  come  to  love  so  well.  What  no  other  man 
could  have  done,  he  did.  Twenty  thousand  pounds  were 


328  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


collected  by  his  untiring  efforts  and  were  expended  dur- 
ing his  tenure,  too  brief,  of  the  decanal  office.  There  is 
little  to  catch  the  eye  which  can  tell  of  the  good  work 
which  has  been  done.  It  is  hidden  in  roofs  and  walls. 
Not  for  decoration  but  for  the  preservation  of  the  noble 
fabric  the  funds  were  provided ;  and  into  that  fabric, 
making  it  secure  for  years,  those  funds  have  been 
poured. 

"  But  in  the  care  for  the  building  itself  —  and  with 
all  its  history,  national  and  artistic,  he  was  minutely  ac- 
quainted and  ever  loved  to  communicate  it  to  those  who 
came  to  visit  it  —  he  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  purposes  for  which  it  exists.  He  preached 
frequently  at  the  popular  Sunday  Evening  service,  and 
vast  numbers  crowded  to  hear  him.  He  had  a  large  cir- 
cle of  friends  among  the  clergy,  and  the  most  eminent  of 
these  he  invited  to  occupy  the  Cathedral  pulpit.  He  was 
the  most  generous  and  appreciative  of  critics.  Few 
could  dream  of  equalling  his  eloquence  or  the  extent  of 
his  ever  available  knowledge.  He  took  a  certain  amount 
of  pleasure  in  his  own  success,  —  although  he  had  a 
tincture  of  pessimism,  —  at  least  he  liked  to  tell  how 
great  were  the  numbers  he  from  time  to  time  addressed. 
But  he  imagined  that  others  could  be  as  attractive  as  he 
if  they  chose.  While  averse  from  the  ritualism  which 
symbolised  sacerdotal  dogmas,  he  was  careful  of  dignity 
in  worship.  The  ceremony  appropriate  to  great  eccle- 
siastical functions  was  studiously  considered  by  him. 
He  never  failed,  whether  it  were  at  an  assemblage  of 
bishops,  the  enthronement  of  a  primate,  or  the  solemn 
pageant  of  an  archbishop's  funeral,  to  represent  with 
dignity  the  Cathedral  of  which  he  was  chief.  He  insti- 
tuted a  yearly  meeting  of  the  Deans  of  Cathedrals,  the 
first  of  which  took  place  in  Canterbury.    He  revived  an 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  329 


ancient  custom  of  personally  greeting,  together  with  the 
Canons,  the  citizens  of  Canterbury  in  the  nave  of  the 
Cathedral,  at  the  conclusion  of  Evensong  on  Christmas 
Day.  He  also  organised  a  yearly  service  for  the  com- 
memoration of  benefactors  of  the  Cathedral.  In  the 
boys  of  the  choir  he  took  the  deepest  interest,  solemnly 
admitting  them  to  their  office,  encouraging  them  with 
parental  caresses,  providing  places  for  them  when  their 
term  of  work  was  over,  and  each  Sunday  afternoon 
teaching  them  himself  in  a  Bible  Class,  —  a  class  for 
which  the  widely  read  scholar  made  special  preparation. 
He  was  never  more  attractive  than  when  with  boys. 
His  interest  in  the  King's  School  was  unceasing  and 
that  of  an  expert.  The  masters  looked  up  to  him  as  a 
chief  in  their  own  profession.  The  boys  recognised  in 
him  a  friend  who  sympathised  with  them  because  he 
understood  them.  No  one  could  speak  to  them  as  he 
could.  The  brilliance  of  his  meditated  rhetoric  disap- 
peared when  he  addressed  them.  Playfulness,  sim- 
plicity, tenderness,  memories  of  thoughts  and  things 
from  various  ages,  made  a  speech  from  him  invigorating 
and  delightful.  It  was  good  to  hear  Archbishop  Tem- 
ple, who  had  also  been  a  schoolmaster,  delivering  his 
rugged  remarks  with  paternal  benignity  —  sunshine  on 
wintry  rocks ;  but  the  Dean  was  incomparable ;  his 
speech  was  like  a  thoroughbred,  easy,  graceful,  and 
free.  The  sixth  form  in  the  school  received  his  frequent 
hospitality  and  knew  him  intimately.  Indeed,  the  hos- 
pitality of  the  Deanery  was  unbounded.  Until  the 
completion  of  the  new  Palace  the  archbishops  were 
entertained  by  him.  The  Sunday  afternoon  and  even- 
ing preachers  received  his  welcome.  On  every  possible 
occasion  the  citizens  of  Canterbury  were  invited  to  his 
home.    His  conversation  was  delightful  without  being 


330  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


monopolising,  and  the  timid  and  retiring  were  encour- 
aged by  his  graciousness.  At  all  the  civic  celebrations 
of  Canterbury  he  was  careful  to  be  present  and  was  the 
chief  speaker ;  and  some  preferred  his  spontaneous 
utterances  to  his  prepared  productions.  There  were 
persons  who  thought  his  taste  too  florid.  Certain  dec- 
orative additions  to  the  Cathedral  buildings,  while 
admired  by  some,  by  others  were  looked  upon  with  less 
favour.  In  these  he  was  not  alone  responsible.  Nothing 
was  done  without  the  assent  of  the  Chapter,  and  the 
whole  Chapter  must  take  the  praise  or  blame.  If  the 
Dean  had  a  fault,  and  most  of  us  have  more  than  one, 
it  was  that  when  some  idea  entered  into  his  mind,  it 
became,  for  the  time,  a  part  of  his  life,  to  be  pursued 
with  unyielding  determination.  Opposition  inflicted  a 
wound.  He  could  not  bear  it ;  and  at  times  his  col- 
leagues yielded  to  his  insistence  from  a  sense  of  the 
quivering  pain  refusal  would  inflict.  The  Dean's  nature 
was  highly  sensitive,  and  it  was  anguish  to  his  colleagues 
to  bruise  it. 

"  But  patience  came  at  last,  —  that  rarest  product  of 
Divine  Grace,  and  with  him  it  had  its  '  perfect  work.' 
Gradually  the  silvery  voice  became  inaudible.  The  fluent 
pen  refused  to  answer  to  the  will.  The  energy  which 
never  flagged,  but  carried  the  orator  and  advocate  from 
one  end  of  Great  Britain  to  the  other,  ebbed  away  into 
trembling  helplessness.  No  word  of  complaint  was 
uttered.  Carried  to  his  stall,  from  time  to  time  he  strove 
to  utter  the  words  of  benediction,  and  like  St.  John  at 
Ephesus,  to  the  last  he  sought  his  Church.  Perhaps  no 
one  did  so  much  in  the  nineteenth  century  to  enlighten 
what  have  been  called  the  Philistine  religious  classes  as 
he  did.  While  his  learning  was  wider  than  that  of  the 
majority  of  scholars,  it  was  used  to  elevate  that  stratum 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  331 


of  unintelligent  piety  which  is  the  largest  constituent  of 
the  Churches.  Lightfoot  instructed  the  few.  Farrar 
educated  the  many.  They  read  his  books  with  delight 
and  without  suspicion,  imbibing  almost  unconsciously 
a  more  liberal  spirit.  For  he  was  liberal  in  spirit  rather 
than  rationalistic  in  conclusion,  —  more  a  preacher  than 
a  theologian.  Suspected  as  unsound  by  some  because 
of  the  very  modest  and  almost  hesitating  book  called 
'  Eternal  Hope,'  those  who  knew  him  clearly  saw  how 
truly  conservative  was  his  faith.  Not  to  doubt  but  to 
pray  was  his  ideal.  For  religion  was  paramount  with 
him.  Theology  was  subordinate.  Therefore  it  was  that 
the  insinuations  and  virulence  of  certain  critics  failed  to 
alienate  the  middle  classes  of  the  various  denominations 
from  his  writings.  Religion  was  the  touch  of  nature 
which  made  them  kin.  There  is  no  one  to  take  his  place. 
Other  men  will  do  other  work,  in  some  respects  higher 
work,  than  he  did.  His  work  was  unique,  and  he  '  being 
dead  yet  speaketh.'    His  light  still  shines:  — 

"  Oh,  never  star 
Was  lost  here  but  it  rose  afar." 

From  Canon  Mason's  eloquent  and  beautiful  memo- 
rial sermon  I  take  the  following  extracts :  — 

******* 

"  How  well  he  allowed  us  to  know  him.  It  was  a  part 
of  his  great  generosity  that  he  did  not  shut  himself  up, 
as  some  students  might  have  done,  in  the  retirement, 
well  though  he  loved  it,  of  his  study,  or  in  the  sacred 
seclusion  of  his  home  life,  though  few  men  have  ever 
been  so  blessed  in  their  home  life  as  he.  That  home 
was  itself  thrown  open  with  the  most  liberal  hospitality, 
and  we  felt  that  the  Dean  not  only  came  out  to  us  from 


332  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 

time  to  time,  but  that  he  lived  among  us.  There  was 
nothing  going  on  in  Canterbury,  —  nothing,  I  mean,  of  a 
wholesome  kind,  nothing  that  concerned  the  welfare  of 
the  City  or  of  any  class  which  it  contained  —  without 
the  Dean  having  his  share  in  it.  At  all  kinds  of  gath- 
erings the  Dean  was  there,  pouring  out  lavishly  of  his 
wonderful  store  of  knowledge,  and  of  his  renowned  elo- 
quence. A  respected  citizen  of  Canterbury  said  to  me 
yesterday,  1 1  feel  that  Canterbury  has  lost  the  best 
friend  it  ever  had.'  Especially  where  the  happiness  and 
the  well-being  of  the  young  were  concerned,  his  time, 
his  powers,  his  possessions,  were  bestowed  without  stint. 
Many  in  Canterbury  of  all  classes  of  society  have  life- 
long reason  to  be  thankful  to  him  for  the  pains  he  took 
to  procure  suitable  situations  and  employments  for  their 
sons.  His  great  influence  was  exerted  for  that  purpose, 
in  letters  and  interviews,  which  cost  him  what  money 
could  not  buy.  What  he  did  for  the  Cathedral  choris- 
ters, whom  he  taught  every  Sunday  with  a  fatherly  ten- 
derness, and  for  whom  he  was  preparing  a  lesson  as 
usual  last  Sunday,  when  the  hand  of  God  summoned 
him ;  what  he  did  for  the  King's  School,  and  for  the 
individual  members  of  it,  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  It 
was  a  characteristic  of  all  his  life  at  Canterbury  that  his 
last  public  act,  the  very  day  before  he  died,  was  to  drive 
out  in  the  high  March  wind  to  bestow  his  loved  and 
honoured  presence  upon  the  King's  School  sports.  Then, 
what  a  life  of  industry  it  was !  It  seemed  as  if  he  did 
not  know  how  to  be  idle.  When  he  came  back  from 
what  were  called  his  holidays,  we  usually  found  that  he 
had  preached  in  the  principal  —  sometimes  also  in  the 
lowliest  —  churches  of  the  neighbourhood  ;  and  that  his 
pen  had  been  even  busier  than  it  was  here,  where  all 
sorts  of  avocations  interrupted  it.    Can  you  form  any 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  333 


estimate  of  the  number  of  letters  which  he  must  have 
written  —  letters  with  a  rare  force  of  persuasion  in  them 
—  to  gather  nearly  ^20,000  together  for  the  repair  and 
adornment  of  this  church  ?  Most  of  his  books  were 
written  before  he  came  to  Canterbury,  but  he  went  in- 
cessantly on  with  his  writing  here,  in  his  library,  or 
sometimes  in  summer  in  the  arbour  on  his  garden  wall, 
until  that  most  pathetic  of  infirmities  fastened  upon  his 
hand,  and  for  ever  stopped  his  active  pen.  Few  men 
have  ever  written  so  much  as  he,  and  still  fewer  have 
written  what  has  been  so  widely  read.  I  have  been 
able  to  count  up  more  than  thirty  separate  books  of  his, 
some  of  which  are  books  in  two  large  volumes,  without 
reckoning  the  innumerable  articles  which  he  wrote  for 
magazines.  If  you  glance  at  the  list  of  them,  you  see 
that  many  of  these  books  are  in  their  third,  fourth,  and 
fifth  editions,  while  one  is  in  its  twelfth,  another  in  its 
fourteenth,  another  in  its  eighteenth  thousand,  while  one 
is  in  its  twenty-fourth  edition.  This  last  is,  of  course,  his 
famous  '  Life  of  Christ,'  and  the  twenty-four  editions  of 
which  I  speak  are  all  English  editions.  I  do  not  know 
whether  there  is  any  civilised  language  into  which  his 
'  Life  of  Christ '  has  not  been  translated.  He  told  me 
himself  of  two  independent  translations  of  it  into  Russian. 
I  know  that  when  I  first  travelled  in  Scandinavia  some 
years  ago,  there  were  two  names  of  Englishmen,  and 
only  two,  which  were  known  to  every  Dane,  —  as  famil- 
iarly known  as  that  of  any  born  Scandinavian ;  the  two 
were  those  of  Spurgeon  and  Farrar.  It  would  be  idle 
to  pretend  that  the  world  was  unanimous  in  its  judg- 
ment upon  the  value  of  some  of  our  Dean's  works.  His 
impetuous  and  rapid  intellect  sometimes  carried  him  to 
conclusions  which  might  perhaps  have  been  modified  if 
he  could  have  lent  himself  seriously  to  thinking  out  an 


334  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


opposite  view.  But  those  are  —  at  least  for  the  moment 
—  generally  the  ineffective  men  who,  like  Erasmus  or 
Maurice,  see  both  sides  of  a  question  and  plead  for  the 
recognition  of  what  is  valuable  in  beliefs  or  practices 
other  than  their  own.  Farrar  was  not  of  that  ineffective 
order  of  mind.  What  he  was  convinced  of,  he  was  con- 
vinced of,  and  all  his  ardent  soul  went  into  the  procla- 
mation of  it,  whoever  might  take  the  other  side.  He  was 
conscious  of  having  no  wish  but  to  follow  and  to  enforce 
the  truth  as  he  apprehended  it. 

******* 

"  You  must  not  think  that  this  characteristic  intensity 
of  conviction  derogated  from  the  largeness  of  his  soul. 
On  the  contrary  it  made  it  all  the  more  remarkable  —  all 
the  more  a  sign  of  Divine  Grace  —  that  he  should  have 
been  so  forbearing  and  so  charitable  towards  those  who 
at  any  time  differed  from  him.  He  felt  more  acutely 
than  other  men  do  the  pain  of  difference.  His  was  a 
peculiarly  sensitive  nature.  He  had  a  more  than  ordi- 
nary longing  to  be  approved  and  loved  ;  and  any  sign  that 
others  disagreed  with  him  caused  him  a  degree  of  suffer- 
ing beyond  what  rougher  men  could  sympathise  with. 
But  his  heart  went  out  tenderly  towards  those  who  in- 
flicted the  suffering,  and  he  was  incapable  of  bearing 
them  ill-will. 

******* 

"  It  was  said  of  Cranmer  that  the  way  to  gain  his 
affection  was  to  do  him  an  injury  and  to  repent  of  it.  I 
have  reason  to  know  that  this  was  the  way  with  Dean 
Farrar.  All  Canterbury  was  proud  of  its  Dean ;  but  I 
believe  that  when  we  look  back  upon  those  eight  years 
we  shall  feel  that  he  helped  us  even  more  during  the 
last  part  of  the  time  than  he  did  during  the  first.  Great 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  335 


as  was  his  work  for  the  City  and  the  Cathedral  in  the  days 
of  his  brilliant  energy,  he  did  yet  more  for  us  when  his 
powers  began  to  decay,  and  he  showed  us  by  example 
how  to  suffer.  If  I  may  dare  to  say  what  appeared  to 
me  to  be  the  case,  I  think  the  Dean  himself  was  happier 
during  the  last  two  years  or  so  than  I  ever  knew  him 
before  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  he  deserved  to  be  so,  for  the 
presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  shone  out  more  and  more 
conspicuously  from  his  wasting  frame.  That  busy  right 
hand  lost  its  cunning,  till  he  could  not  so  much  as  turn 
the  pages  of  his  sermon  for  himself,  but  had  one  of  the 
King's  scholars  beside  him  in  this  pulpit  to  turn  them  for 
him ;  then  that  wonderful  voice  which  used  to  set  the 
hearts  of  thousands  vibrating  as  he  spoke  of  righteous- 
ness and  temperance  and  judgment  to  come  became 
husky  and  feeble,  and  he  was  compelled  even  to  give  up 
reading  the  lessons.  But  he  never  murmured.  Not 
even  in  his  utmost  privacy  did  he  complain.  All  impa- 
tience, all  fretfulness,  were  banished.  We  saw  nothing 
but  cheerfulness,  gratitude,  ever  growing  thoughtfulness 
for  others,  the  courageous  determination  to  go  on  doing 
what  he  could  and  as  long  as  he  could.  Not  the  greatest 
of  his  sermons  at  Cambridge,  or  at  Westminster,  or  here, 
was  so  eloquent  as  the  sight  of  our  speechless  Dean  car- 
ried day  after  day  to  his  place  in  the  choir.  Not  the 
most  influential  of  his  books  was  so  convincing  a  wit- 
ness to  Christ  as  that  '  epistle  known  and  read  of  all 
men,' — the  epistle  of  his  infirmities,  not  paraded,  but 
not  concealed  —  after  the  example  of  Him  who  confessed 
upon  the  cross,  '  I  thirst,'  where  we  saw  exhibited  the 
transforming  power  of  faith,  so  that  it  might  be  said  of 
the  Dean,  as  it  was  said  of  one  of  the  ancient  martyrs, 
that,  'Christ  suffering  in  him  achieved  a  great  triumph, 
showing  in  a  pattern  for  the  rest  to  copy  that  there  is 


336  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


nothing  to  be  feared  where  the  love  of  the  Father  is,  and 
nothing  painful  where  is  the  glory  of  Christ.'  Even  if 
we  should  forget '  the  word  of  the  Lord  '  which  the  Dean 
'  spake  to  us '  with  his  lips  while  he  '  had  the  rule  over 
us,'  it  will,  I  believe,  be  impossible  for  us  to  forget 1  the 
issue  of  his  life  and  conversation '  in  the  months  of  his 
brave  and  calm  advance  towards  a  Christian  death. 
God  grant  that  as  we  'consider'  it  —  especially  you,  the 
young  men  and  boys  whom  he  loved  so  dearly  —  we  may 
learn  to  'imitate  his  faith.' " 

My  sister,  the  Hon.  Mrs.  J.  S.  Northcote,  writes  as 
follows :  — 

"  My  earliest  recollection  of  my  father  goes  back  to 
1869,  when  he  was  a  Harrow  master,  and  we  children 
delighted  to  look  out  of  the  nursery  window  on  a  winter's 
afternoon,  and  watch  him  return  from  a  game  of  foot- 
ball, looking  so  fresh  and  vigorous,  his  muddied  dress 
betraying  the  activity  of  his  play.  Another  recollection, 
relating  to  days  when  we  had  grown  a  little  older,  is  of 
our  walking  with  him  in  the  park  at  Harrow,  when  he 
took  us  to  feed  the  tame  swans,  and  delighted  our  child- 
ish ears  with  stories,  —  stories  of  Solomon  and  the  Hoo- 
poo  birds,  and  other  beautiful  legends ;  or  of  wandering 
with  him  on  the  Marlborough  Downs  while  he  recited  to 
us  such  poems  as  '  O  Mary,  go  and  call  the  cattle  home.' 
His  mind  was  such  a  beautiful  storehouse  of  all  that  is 
noblest  in  English  literature,  and  I  shall  always  love  to 
remember  that  the  best  part  of  our  education  was  our 
walks  and  talks  with  him.  He  simply  loved  Marlbor- 
ough. As  we  climbed  the  Downs  he  taught  us  to  spy 
out  the  blue-and-pink  milkwort  and  tiny  shepherd's  purse, 
to  look  for  the  rare  orchids  that  were  to  be  found  in  the 
copses,  or  to  gather  the  wild  geraniums  in  the  hedges. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  337 


My  father  always  walked  with  his  hat  off,  usually  giving 
it  to  one  of  us  children  to  carry,  while  the  wind  blew  the 
hair  from  his  forehead.  He  was  a  great  walker  when- 
ever he  had  leisure,  as  in  the  summer  holidays,  when  he 
invariably  stayed  some  weeks  at  the  seaside.  Swanage, 
in  Dorsetshire,  was  a  favourite  resort  for  many  years, 
also  Llanfairfechan,  in  North  Wales,  and  Newquay,  in 
Cornwall.  These  summer  holidays  are  particularly  treas- 
ured in  our  memories  as  most  delightful  times.  We 
were  a  family  of  ten  children,  all  healthy  and  strong,  and 
we  went  out  in  large  parties  with  my  father  for  long 
walks  over  the  mountains  and  along  the  seashore.  These 
rambles  were  always  enriched  by  his  wonderful  talk.  He 
was  very  athletic.  A  Scotchman  whom  he  used  to  visit 
describes  how  he  went  up  the  mountains  with  '  the  agil- 
ity of  a  young  deer.' 

"  I  can  also  recall  how  in  those  same  summer  holidays 
my  father  possessed  a  marvellous  power  of  absorbing 
himself  in  his  work,  in  spite  of  so  many  children  always 
around  him.  Many  of  his  books  were  largely  written  in 
the  leisure  of  these  holidays,  he  sitting  in  the  garden, 
never  disturbed  by  our  merry  games,  or  in  a  room  where 
other  occupations  were  going  on  around  him.  In  Lon- 
don his  sermons  were  all  written  in  a  study  that  was  only 
separated  by  folding  doors  from  a  drawing-room  where 
his  five  daughters  practised  on  the  piano  in  succession. 
His  power  of  concentration  prevented  him  minding  in 
the  slightest  degree  what  would  have  driven  so  many 
men  distracted.  Those  sermons  in  St.  Margaret's ! 
how  wonderful  they  were,  preached  to  such  vast  crowds 
as,  I  suppose,  no  other  preacher  ever  gathered  there. 
Not  only  were  the  aisles  crowded  up  with  extra  chairs, 
but  people  sitting  on  the  chancel  steps,  the  pulpit  steps, 
on  hassocks  put  out  from  the  pews,  and  crowds  standing 


338  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


the  whole  service  through  to  listen  to  the  golden  words 
which  have  changed  for  good  so  many  lives. 

"  The  social  life  at  Dean's  Yard  was  very  charming. 
Around  his  table  he  gathered  the  historians,  poets, 
churchmen,  and  the  eminent  in  science  and  art  of  his  day, 
and  by  his  exceptional  geniality  and  charm  of  manner 
not  only  fascinated  them  one  and  all,  but  got  even  the 
most  reticent  and  silent  to  open  out  and  talk  as  he  did. 
He  also  yearly  filled  his  rooms  with  the  rich  and  the 
poor  alike  among  his  Church  workers,  having  most 
delightful  1  At  Homes,'  which,  as  his  enthusiasm  for 
social  and  philanthropic  work  widened,  grew  to  many 
scores. 

"  During  the  last  years  of  his  life  my  father  preached 
comparatively  seldom,  but  he  strove  to  make  the  Deanery 
the  centre  of  the  Cathedral  and  town  life  of  Canterbury. 
The  Deanery  was  filled  with  beautiful  objects  and  rich 
with  colour.  It  was  a  quaint  old  house,  and  my  father 
was  very  proud  of  it  and  of  the  interesting  collection  of 
Deans'  portraits,  of  which  not  one  was  missing,  from 
the  Dean  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  down  to  his  own. 
Gradually  the  last  sad  illness,  which  began  two  years 
ago,  robbed  him  of  his  bodily,  though  never  of  his 
mental,  activity.  It  was  atrophy  of  the  muscles, 
brought  about  by  a  slight  fall  some  years  before.  But 
it  gradually  stole  over  his  whole  body,  till  his  hands  and 
arms  were  so  helpless  that  he  could  not  raise  them  even 
to  feed  himself,  and  he  could  no  longer  hold  up  his  head. 
Then  one  by  one  he  had  to  surrender  the  occupations 
that  he  loved,  —  writing,  reading,  walking,  and  serving 
in  God's  house.  One  by  one  they  were  laid  aside  with 
unmurmuring  sweetness,  though  it  was  a  sorrow  un- 
speakable to  him  not  to  be  able  to  administer  the  Holy 
Communion,  or  to  read  the  lessons  in  the  Cathedral,  or 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  339 


even  to  read  prayers  in  his  own  household.  He  had  to 
be  carried  into  the  Cathedral  for  the  daily  services,  yet 
he  bore  it  all  with  cheerfulness  and  a  sweet  dignity  that 
was  very  touching.1 

"  But  to  the  last  his  wonderful  memory  remained,  and 
his  power  of  clear,  full  expression  of  thought  in  articles 
and  letters  that  could  only  be  dictated.  The  last  months 
of  his  life  were  happy  and  peaceful,  nevertheless.  His 
sons  and  daughters,  who  constantly  gathered  at  the 
Deanery  from  their  different  homes,  felt  themselves  to 
be  in  a  holy  presence,  and  never  left  him  without  a  sense 
of  calm  and  strength  and  uplifting.  He  was  cheered 
by  the  diligent  presence  of  many  friends  who  loved  to 
be  with  him,  and  he  was  sustained  and  comforted  by  no 
hands  less  loving  and  tender  than  those  of  her  who  for 
forty-three  years  had  been  his  beautiful  helpmate,  and 
to  whom  he  owed  more  than  ordinary  husbands  ever  can 
owe  to  their  wives.  There  was  no  distress  of  farewell 
at  the  end.  He  sank  quietly  to  sleep  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one,  on  Sunday,  March  22.  The  grave  in  the 
quiet  cloister  that  he  loved  is  a  fitting  resting-place  for 
one  who  not  only  himself  has  entered  into  the  joy  of  his 
Lord,  but  who  had  set  the  feet  of  thousands  on  the  same 
shining  road  thither.  In  Christo  vixit  —  In  Christo 
vivit." 

The  Deanery  of  Canterbury,  the  structure  of  which 
dates  back  in  part  to  the  fifteenth,  and  in  its  older  por- 
tions to  the  thirteeenth  century,  is  in  respect  of  its  fine 

1  Extract  from  a  poem  by  another  sister,  Mrs.  J.  S.  Thomas  :  — 

How  the  light  of  love  streamed  round  him  when  his  noble  frame  was 
bowed ! 

In  what  a  Sabbath  calmness  did  the  last  long  shadows  fall ! 

Hushed  was  the  wondrous  voice  that  used  to  thrill  the  listening  crowd, 

But  this  his  latest  sermon  was  the  holiest  of  all. 


340  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


reception  rooms  and  lovely  garden  one  of  the  stateliest 
of  the  English  Deaneries,  and  the  joint  taste  of  my 
father  and  mother  made  of  it  a  very  beautiful  home.  A 
striking  feature  of  the  Deanery  is  a  very  valuable  series 
of  contemporary  portraits  of  all  the  Deans  of  Canterbury 
since  the  Reformation.  To  the  restoration  of  these 
portraits  my  father  generously  devoted  a  sum  of  money 
which  formed  part  of  the  farewell  gift  of  his  parishioners 
at  St.  Margaret's.  Very  proud  was  he  to  be  the  custo- 
dian of  the  unique  collection.  He  knew  by  heart  the 
history  of  all  his  predecessors  (among  whom  was  Dean 
Bargrave,  who  had  been,  like  himself,  Rector  of  St. 
Margaret's  and  a  Royal  Chaplain);  and  even  in  his 
latest  days,  when  he  could  no  longer  raise  his  head  to 
see  the  portraits,  he  was  never  weary  of  explaining  them 
with  characteristic  fulness  of  historical  detail  to  the 
numerous  guests  at  the  Deanery.  The  walls  of  every 
room  in  the  Deanery  were  clothed  with  beautiful  and 
interesting  pictures  which  my  father  had  gradually 
amassed,  and  especially  with  copies,  prints,  or  photo- 
graphs from  sacred  art.  His  passionate  love  of  Art, 
especially  of  sacred  art,  was  one  of  his  strongest  char- 
acteristics. He  was  not  a  connoisseur  of  technique  or 
an  amateur  of  style  :  he  did  not  value  pictures  for  their 
rarity  or  costliness ;  he  knew  little  of,  and  cared  less 
for,  "  processes  "  ;  he  loved  his  pictures  with  a  Catholic 
taste,  partly  as  ministering  to  the  refined  colour  sense 
which  he  possessed  in  a  very  high  degree,  but  chiefly 
as  the  beautiful  embodiments  of  deep  moral  and  re- 
ligious truths.  He  could  not  endure  walls  bare  of 
pictures.  As  a  schoolmaster,  he  loved  to  clothe  with 
prints  or  with  the  reproductions  of  the  Arundel  Society 
the  walls  of  his  class  rooms.  Even  the  servants'  hall 
was  thus  beautified. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  341 


He  had  travelled  a  good  deal  on  the  Continent,  es- 
pecially in  his  earlier  Harrow  days,  and  the  range  of 
his  knowledge  of  sacred  art  in  Continental  galleries 
and  our  own  National  Gallery  was  almost  Ruskinian. 

This  knowledge  bore  fruit  in  one  of  his  later  works, 
the  beautiful  "  Life  of  Christ  in  Art,"  published  in 
1894,  a  thesauron  of  reproductions  of  some  of  the  most 
exquisite  sacred  pictures  in  the  world. 

One  of  his  best  sermons  is  the  Sermon  on  Art,  pub- 
lished in  "  Social  and  Present  Day  Questions,"  from 
which  I  am  tempted  to  give  the  following  extract,  to 
show  the  preacher's  power  of  seizing  on  the  moral  les- 
sons conveyed  by  a  great  picture  :  — 

"  There  was  yet  a  deeper  lesson  in  another  strange 
picture  by  Mr.  Burne-Jones,  called  'The  Depths  of  the 
Sea.'  A  mermaid,  beautiful  in  face,  but  hideously 
repellent  in  her  scaly  train,  has  flung  her  arms  around  a 
youth,  and  is  dragging  him  down  through  the  green 
waters  to  her  cave.  In  her  face  is  the  intense  malignity 
of  cruel  triumph  and  cruel  scorn  ;  in  the  youth's  face  is 
the  agony  of  frustration  and  of  death.  And  the  motto  be- 
low is  :  '  Habes  tota  quod  mente  petisti,  Infelix ! '  —  Thou 
hast  what  thou  soughtest  with  all  thy  soul,  unhappy  one. 
Oh,  that  it  were  in  my  power  to  preach  to  all  young  men 
a  sermon  of  meaning  so  intense  as  that  picture !  The 
mermaid,  like  the  Siren  of  mythology,  like  the  strange 
woman  of  the  Proverbs,  is  the  harlot  Sense.  She  is  the 
type  of  carnal  temptation,  ending  in  disillusion,  shame, 
anguish,  death.  It  is  the  meaning  of  that  saying  of  the 
rabbis,  '  The  demons  come  to  us  smiling  and  beautiful ; 
when  they  have  done  their  work,  they  drop  their  mask.' 
It  is  the  meaning  of  Solomon  :  '  But  he  knoweth  not 
that  the  dead  are  there,  and  that  her  guests  are  in  the 
depths  of  hell.'    God  has  granted  to  that  youth  his 


342  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


'  heart's  desire,  and  sent  leanness  withal  into  his  bones. 
He  has  got  what  he  passionately  longed  for,  and  it  is  — 
death ! 

"  Or,  once  more  !  If  a  youth  needs  not  so  much  a 
warning  against  the  idolatries  of  sense  as  hope  to  secure 
the  conquest  over  them,  could  he  learn  the  lesson  in 
a  more  inspiring  form  than  by  going  into  our  National 
Gallery,  and  there  reading  the  meaning  of  Turner's 
great  pictures  of  Apollo  and  the  Python  ?  The  youthful 
Sun-God,  the  emblem  of  victorious  purity,  is  seated  in 
his  circle  of  light,  launching  arrow  after  arrow  at  that 
huge,  loathly  monster  of  corruption.  Awful  and  terrible 
as  that  destructive  monster  looks,  it  is  but  a  colossal 
worm.  When  the  arrow  pierces  it,  it  bursts  asunder  in 
the  midst.  Any  youth,  I  think,  who  had  in  his  soul  one 
gleam  of  noble  imagination,  might  well,  as  he  looked  at 
that  picture,  be  inspired  to  hate  the  foulness  of  that  im- 
purity which  can  so  frightfully  crush  to  death  all  who 
put  themselves  in  its  power,  but  which  is  yet  v/eak  as  a 
worm  to  those  who  '  walk  in  the  light  as  Christ  is  in  the 
light,'  and  who  pierce  the  pestilent  foulness  with  the 
arrows  of  the  dawn." 

In  reference  to  his  love  of  art  the  two  following 
letters  are  of  interest :  — 

"  Bologna,  Oct.  ist,  1891. 
"My  dearest  Lilian:  I  began  a  letter  to  you  a 
week  ago,  but  the  pressure  and  exigencies  of  daily 
travelling,  and  the  absorbing  demands  of  Venice,  pre- 
vented me  from  finishing  it.  I  therefore  send  this  line 
to  tell  you  that  you  and  all  my  children,  as  well  as 
Mother,  are  always  in  my  thoughts.  You  had  all  the 
enjoyments  of  a  delightful  trip  last  year,  so  you  can 
judge  how  pleasant  it  has  been  to  Eric  and  me,  and  how 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  343 


much  we  have  learnt.  Venice  was  as  enchanting  as 
ever,  to  the  last ;  and  I  have  greatly  enjoyed  my  brief 
visits  to  Ferrara  and  Bologna,  where  I  have  learnt  more 
about  Giotto,  Mantegna,  Ercole  Grandi,  Dossi  Dossi, 
Garofalo,  and  other  painters  than  I  ever  knew  before. 
At  Bergamo  I  learnt  to  know  the  sweetness  and  power 
of  Lorenzo  Lotto,  and  at  Brescia  the  splendours  of 
Moretto  and  Romanino.  I  have  kept  art  steadily  in 
view,  and  it  has  been  a  great  delight  to  me.  I  am 
bringing  home  no  presents.  Your  mother  objurgated, 
or  rather  adjured  me,  not  to  waste  money  on  Salviati 
glass  and  wooden  figures,  or  pictures  for  which  we  have 
no  room  ;  and  Eric  bullied  me  out  of  buying  an  original 
Paolo  Vanino  (which  I  could  have  got  for  ^3)  and  an 
inkstand  copied  from  the  Porta  della  Salute,  —  so  I  shall 
have  no  presents  this  time.  I  am  much  distressed  to 
think  that  dear  Mother  has  practically  had  no  holiday 
at  all.  We  shall  all  miss  Ivor.  It  is  my  earnest  hope 
that  he  will  be  happy  and  do  well.  You,  I  know,  will 
throw  yourself  heartily  into  all  Parish  work,  and  will 
go  on  educating  yourself.  Good-bye.  I  am,  dearest 
Lilian, 

"  Your  loving  father, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

"  Oct.  8th. 

"  Mv  darling  Lilian  :  We  were  so  glad  to  hear  from 
your  letter  that  you  are  enjoying  delightful  Venice 
so  much;  but  we  were  sorry  to  hear  of  mosquitoes. 
Eric  and  I,  by  the  help  of  pastilles  burnt  inside  the 
Zazezicri,  carbolic  acid  soap,  eucalyptus  oil,  and  other 
things,  escaped  without  one  bite. 

"  Tennyson  is  dead.  What  a  loss  !  but  I  knew  when 
Phillips  Brooks  and  I  spent  that  happy  day  with  him 


344  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


at  Aldworth  last  July  that  I  should  never  see  him 
again.  Since  my  youth  he  has  been  a  delight  and  a 
teacher  to  me  ;  and  for  twenty-five  years  a  most  kind 
personal  friend.  One  of  the  poems  in  his  forthcoming 
volume  —  a  very  noble  one  —  was  written  at  my  sug- 
gestion. 

"  Do  you  remember  the  picture  shop  at  the  left  hand 
of  the  Fresconici,  I  think,  a  little  after  you  turn  from  the 
left  out  of  the  Calle  which  leads  to  the  Hotel  Britannia, 
where  I  saw,  and  have  ever  since  coveted,  a  little  picture 
by  Padovanicino,  of  a  child  Christ  with  His  arm  on  a 
globe  ?  If  it  is  still  there,  and  the  man  will  let  you  have 
it  for  £2  (he  will  ask  double,  but  will  take  £2),  I  wish 
you  would  buy  it  for  me.  Miss  Winthrop  would  doubt- 
less be  kind  enough  to  advance  the  money,  and  I  would 
pay  her  the  moment  you  return.  I  hope  that  the  rest 
of  your  stay  and  your  return  will  be  very  happy.  Kind- 
est regards  to  Miss  Winthrop.    I  am 

"  Your  loving  father, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar. 

"  P.  S.  I  write  in  great  haste.  I  shall  probably  preach 
twice  on  Tennyson  at  St.  Margaret's  on  Sunday." 

In  his  beautiful  Deanery  my  father,  who  was  one  of 
the  most  hospitable  of  men,  delighted  to  entertain  a  con- 
stant succession  of  guests.  On  one  occasion  he  had  the 
honour  of  entertaining  to  lunch  the  Prince  of  Wales  (now 
our  King),  who  came  with  the  Princess  of  Wales  and  a 
distinguished  company  to  the  opening  of  the  restored 
and  beautified  Chapter  House.  It  was  his  constant  aim 
to  secure  illustrious  and  able  preachers  to  edify  and  in- 
terest the  congregations  in  the  Cathedral.  The  preachers 
were  almost  invariably  entertained  at  the  Deanery,  so 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  345 


that  he  had  generally  one,  frequently  two,  clergymen 
staying  with  him  from  Saturday  to  Monday.  It  was 
his  practice  to  invite  two  of  the  King's  scholars  in  turn 
to  breakfast  on  Sunday  morning,  and  some  guests  were 
almost  sure  to  be  invited  to  the  charming  and  informal 
suppers  on  Sunday  evenings. 

The  visitors'  book  kept  at  Canterbury,  as  at  Marl- 
borough and  Westminster,  showed  a  long  roll  of  names, 
including  many  of  the  most  illustrious. 

Of  all  his  guests  at  Canterbury  none  were  more 
welcome  or  more  honoured  than  the  two  successive 
Archbishops,  Benson  and  Temple.  The  old  Arch- 
bishop's Palace  at  Canterbury  was  accidentally  burnt  in 
the  time  of  Cranmer,  and  was  left  in  ruins  till  Arch- 
bishop Parker  came,  in  1559.  He  rebuilt  the  Palace 
and  resided  in  it,  but  after  his  time  part  was  pulled 
down  and  part  converted  into  tenements.  Since  then, 
until  1899,  when  the  portion  remaining  was  restored,  in 
Archbishop  Temple's  reign,  and  now  forms  once  more 
the  Archbishop's  official  residence,  it  was  the  traditional 
custom  for  the  Archbishop  when  at  Canterbury  to  be, 
together  with  his  chaplain,  the  guest  of  the  Dean.  For 
the  short,  all  too  short,  period  —  about  a  year  —  that  in- 
tervened between  my  father's  appointment  to  Canter- 
bury and  the  death  of  Archbishop  Benson,  —  who  died 
on  his  knees  in  the  House  of  God,  a  death  in  beautiful 
harmony  with  a  most  saintly  life,  —  it  was  my  father's 
constant  privilege  to  receive  the  Archbishop  and  Mrs. 
Benson  as  his  guests  whenever  they  came  to  Canterbury. 
The  friendship  which  had  always  subsisted  between  them 
ripened  in  this  intercourse  into  the  deepest  affection. 
My  father  obtained  from  the  Home  Secretary  permis- 
sion to  bury  Archbishop  Temple  in  the  Cathedral,  where 
no  Archbishop  of  the  Reformed  Church  had  ever  before 


346 


LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


been  buried.  The  last  Archbishop  interred  in  the 
Cathedral  had  been  Cardinal  Pole,  in  1558.  When 
Archbishop  Temple  succeeded  Ben  son,  the  same  cus- 
tom obtained  until  the  restoration  of  the  Archbishop's 
Palace.  For  him,  too,  my  father  had  the  profoundest 
respect  and  almost  the  same  affection  as  he  had  felt 
for  his  predecessor.  On  the  last  occasion  when  he  en- 
tertained him,  Archbishop  Temple,  one  of  the  least 
effusive  of  men,  took  my  father's  hand  in  both  of  his 
and  said  to  him,  "  Words  fail  me  to  express  my  sense 
of  your  kindness  to  me." 

The  closing  years  of  my  dear  father's  life  at  Canter- 
bury will  always  be  thought  of  by  those  who  knew  and 
loved  him  as  the  most  beautiful  years  of  a  life  of  saintly 
service. 

An  accidental  fall,  some  years  before,  had  set  up  an 
insidious  process  of  degeneration  in  the  spinal  cord,  the 
results  of  which  gradually  became  manifest  in  progres- 
sive muscular  atrophy,  and  finally  robbed  him  of  all 
power  in  the  upper  extremities.  Already,  in  1899,  he 
began  to  lose  the  use  first  of  his  right  hand,  —  that  right 
hand  which  had  toiled  so  long  and  so  fruitfully  in  the 
service  of  mankind.  The  beautiful  "  Life  of  Lives," 
published  in  1900,  was  his  last  important  book,  —  the 
most  precious,  in  some  respects,  of  all  his  books.  The 
atrophy  spread  till  both  hands  hung  helpless  from 
the  shoulders.  Even  the  muscles  of  the  neck  were 
attacked,  till  he  could  no  longer  hold  his  noble  head 
erect;  and  finally  atrophy  of  the  muscles  of  respiration 
brought  his  life  to  a  peaceful  and  painless  end.  But  to 
the  last  his  memory  and  his  powers  of  mind  were  quite 
unimpaired,  and  his  touching  progressive  weakness  was 
concomitant  with  a  wonderful  and  beautiful  exaltation 
of  the  spiritual  life. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  347 


Truly  —  for  such  as  he  — 

The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 

Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  that  time  has  made. 

If,  in  the  ardent  zeal  of  youth  and  manhood,  he  had 
ever  been  impetuous  or  impatient ;  if,  in  his  hatred  of 
overweening  sacerdotal  claims,  he  had  ever  been  unduly 
vigorous  in  denunciation  —  intolerant  he  never  was  ;  if 
any  gusts  of  controversy  had  ever  ruffled  the  surface  of 
that  strenuous  and  noble  life,  all  petty  flecks  and  flaws 
were  now  stilled  in  the  calm  of  a  deeper  spiritual  insight, 
all  clouds  were  banished  by  a  fuller  light  of  love.  When 
he  could  no  longer  gird  himself  to  go  forth  and  preach 
the  Gospel,  there  was  granted  to  him  a  closer  walk  with 
the  God  whom  he  had  served. 

Often  in  suffering,  daily  growing  weaker,  he  bore 
both  weakness  and  suffering  not  only  with  unmurmur- 
ing patience  but  with  unfailing  cheerfulness ;  and  the 
dogged  courage  with  which  he  faced  his  duties  to  the 
last  day  of  his  life,  is  comparable  to  that  of  Browning's 
heroic  Grammarian. 

As  his  weakness  grew  upon  him,  he  talked  often  of 
resigning  the  Deanery,  but  his  friend  Archbishop  Tem- 
ple would  not  suffer  this :  and  indeed  he  carried  out  to 
the  end,  and  most  effectively,  his  duties  as  Dean. 

His  colleagues  can  testify  that  to  the  last  his  experi- 
ence, his  moderation,  and  his  wise  counsels  guided  to 
the  best  ends  all  the  deliberations  of  the  Chapter :  when 
he  could  no  longer  walk  to  the  Cathedral,  he  was  daily 
carried  thither  in  a  chair  by  strong  attendants,  whom 
he  never  failed  to  reward  with  a  few  words  of  friendly 
gratitude,  and  the  spectacle  of  that  once  powerful, 
now  helpless  frame  daily  borne  to  worship  in  the 
House  of  God  was  more  eloquent  than  many  a  sermon : 


348  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


to  the  last  the  social  influence  of  the  Deanery  and  the 
generous  hospitality  of  the  beloved  Dean  were  a  power 
for  good  in  Canterbury,  even  though  the  gracious  host 
sat  among  his  guests,  cheerful,  witty,  kindly,  full  of 
anecdotes  and  interesting  historical  reminiscences,  as  of 
old,  though  wholly  unable  to  lift  a  hand  to  feed  himself, 
or  even  to  raise  his  head. 

Wholly  dependent  for  his  physical  needs  on  the  min- 
istrations of  others,  he  was  enabled  to  bear  his  disabili- 
ties by  an  absence  of  self-consciousness  as  rare  as  it  was 
beautiful.  He  never  developed  the  peevishness  or  ex- 
acting selfishness  which  so  often  mars  the  character  of 
invalids,  but  was  touchingly  grateful  for  every  little  ser- 
vice, —  to  his  kind  and  devoted  physician,  Dr.  Reid, 
whom  he  was  wont  to  greet  with  a  shower  of  kindly 
chaff ;  to  his  children  or  guests  when  they  read  to  him ; 
to  visitors  when  they  brought  him  some  little  offering  of 
flowers  cr  fruit. 

To  my  dear  mother,  who  throughout-  his  long  decay 
of  physical  powers  hardly  left  his  side  for  an  hour,  love 
gave  strength  to  minister  to  him  by  night  as  well  as  by 
day,  and,  aided  only  by  our  old  family  nurse,  to  do  the 
work  of  two  trained  nurses.  How  faithful,  how  tender, 
how  lovely  was  her  devotion,  even  those  who  best  knew 
my  father  in  his  home  can  only  partially  guess. 

I  think  my  father  was  never  happier,  certainly  never 
more  serene  and  cheerful,  with  a  serenity  that  often 
found  its  expression  in  a  gracious  playfulness,  than  in 
the  last  three  years  of  his  life.  Certainly  he  won  the 
love  of  others  in  fuller  and  more  unstinted  measure  than 
ever  before.  Many  letters  of  sympathy  reached  him 
from  all  quarters,  among  others  a  gracious  message  of 
enquiry  from  the  highest  lady  in  the  land. 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  349 


One  of  these  letters  is  given  here :  — 

"London,  April  13,  1901. 
"The  Very  Revd.  Dean  Farrar. 

"  Sir  :  I  do  pray  God  will  soon  restore  you  to  health. 
England  has  few  if  any  godly  men  like  you.  Oh,  how 
often  I  and  thousands  more  have  deplored  your  leaving 
St.  Margaret's  —  how  often  I  have  been  privileged  to  lis- 
ten to  your  never  to  be  forgotten  sermons.  I  thank  God 
I  had  that  privilege  —  and  your  books,  full  of  comfort  to 
the  dying.  Oh,  may  God  spare  you.  I  am  only  a  poor 
woman,  but  I  hope  to  see  you  in  Heaven.  There  will  be 
a  crown  of  glory  awaiting  you. 

"  From  a  devoted  hearer." 

I  may  be  allowed  to  give  here,  for  the  sake  of  the 
touching  review  of  his  life  with  which  it  concludes,  the 
last  letter  I  ever  received  from  his  own  hand,  —  a  letter 
written  on  the  type-writer,  which  for  a  time  he  was  able 
to  use,  when  no  longer  able  to  guide  a  pen.  It  was 
addressed  to  me  in  India,  where  I  was  at  the  time  en- 
gaged on  Famine  duty :  — 

"The  Deanery,  Canterbury,  April  19,  1900. 

"  My  dearest  Reggie  :  Your  letter  reached  me  this 
morning.  I  need  not  assure  you,  for  you  will  be  sure 
without  my  saying  it,  that  you  are  constantly  in  our 
thoughts,  and  are  remembered  daily  before  God  in  our 
prayers.  What  wonderful  experiences  you  are  having  ! 
They  must  at  times  be  very  fatiguing,  but  must  at  the 
same  time  be  full  of  interest,  and  will  always  remain  in 
your  memory.  Have  you  ever  thought  of  putting  down 
your  adventures,  and  publishing  them  in  the  form  of  a 
little  book  ?    I  cannot  really  say  whether  it  would  be 


35o  LIFE  OF  DEAN  FARRAR 


wise  or  not,  for,  in  these  days  more  than  ever,  'of 
making  many  books  there  is  no  end,'  and  there  are 
shoals  of  books,  and  even  some  which  are  not  devoid 
of  merit,  which  fall  from  the  Press  still-born.  Have  you 
ever  heard  how  many  novels  are  published  every  single 
day  in  the  year  ?  No  less  than  five  !  One  wonders 
how  many  of  these  survive  for  a  single  week. 

"  We  most  earnestly  trust  that  you  may  keep  your 
health  in  the  midst  of  all  your  most  useful  labours,  and 
I  feel  sure  that  you  will  be  sustained  by  the  thought 
that  you  are  thus  called  to  take  your  part  in  the  Imperial 
duties  involved  in  the  possession  of  our  vast  Empire. 
It  must  require  no  little  fortitude,  and  the  assistance  of 
good  spirits,  to  be  moving  day  after  day  in  the  midst  of 
pestilence  and  famine ;  but  it  will  help  you  to  know  that 
you  are  doing  your  best  to  alleviate  both. 

"  I  have  been  to  two  experts  about  the  weakness  of  my 
right  hand,  —  to  Dr.  Buzzard  and  to  Dr.  Ferrier.  They 
both  recommended  the  same  line  of  treatment,  namely, 
daily  injection  of  strychnia  and  weekly  electrifying  of 
the  arm.  I  tell  Dr.  Reid  that  he  is  constantly  guilty  of 
assault  and  battery,  and  tell  him  that,  like  Henry  the  Sixth, 

u  My  anointed  body 
By  him  is  punched  full  of  deadly  holes. 

"Whether  it  does  any  good  or  not  I  really  cannot 
tell,  but  although  the  hand  does  not  seem  to  get  any 
better,  it  does  not  seem  to  get  rapidly  worse.  My  ter- 
rible dread  is  lest  the  muscular  atrophy  should  spread 
and  make  me  a  cripple ;  but  I  must  bear  whatever  it 
may  please  God  to  send. 

******* 

"  I  can  most  honestly  say  that  throughout  my  whole 
life  I  have  been  kind  to  many,  have  earnestly  striven 


DEAN  OF  CANTERBURY  351 


and  desired  to  be  kind  to  all,  and  have  never  once  in 
my  life  done  any  intentional  harm  to  any  human  being. 
That  is  enough  for  me,  and 

"  If  powers  Divine 
Behold  our  human  actions,  as  they  do, 
I  doubt  not  then  that  Innocence  shall  make 
False  accusation  blush. 

"With  best  love  from  mother  and  me,  I  am,  my 
dearest  Reggie, 

"  Your  most  loving  father, 

"  F.  W.  Farrar." 

On  March  21st,  in  spite  of  a  bitterly  cold  east  wind, 
rather  than  disappoint  the  boys  of  his  beloved  King's 
School,  my  father  insisted  on  being  driven  to  witness 
their  school  sports.  On  the  evening  of  the  same  day 
he  was  busy  in  preparing  with  his  usual  conscientious 
thoroughness  the  lesson  which  he  was  accustomed  to 
give  on  Sundays  to  the  boys  of  the  Cathedral  choir. 

On  Sunday,  March  22,  1903,  faithful  unto  death,  he 
passed  away  to  receive  his  Crown  of  Life. 


"  They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of 
the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness 
as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever." 


INDEX 


Abadie,  Colonel,  320. 
Abbott,  Dr.,  145. 

"  Aids  to  Reflection,"  Coleridge's,  14. 
Alford,  Dean,  39. 

American  Sunday  School  Times,  319. 

"  Apostles,"  society  of,  39. 

"  Arctic  Regions,  The,"  Farrar's  poem 

on,  48-50,  137. 
Aristophanes,  "The  Birds,"  allusion 

to,  54- 
Arnold,  Dr.,  65,  89. 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  26,  145,  203,  204, 
229. 

Arnold,  Kerchever,  17. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  25,  110,  m,  177, 
189. 

Art,  sermon  on,  258,  341,  342. 
Arundel  Society,  340. 
Aylesbury,  I,  4,  10. 
Aylesbury  Latin  School,  4. 

Bapuji,  Appaji,  9. 

Barnardo,  Dr.,  247. 

Bargrave,  Dean,  340. 

Baxter,  Richard,  265. 

Bayard,  Mr.,  ambassador  to  Great 

Britain,  300. 
Beaconsfield,  Lord.     See  Disraeli, 

Benjamin. 
Beesly,  Professor  E.  Spencer,  16,  53, 

56,  68-70,  75-77,  126-131. 
Bell,  Canon  Henry,  56,  145. 
"  Bells  and  Pomegranates,"  review  of, 

289. 

Benson,  Archbishop,  317,  345,  346. 
Benson,  Mrs.,  345. 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  23. 
Bere,  Charles,  56. 

"  Bible,  The,  Its  Meaning  and  Suprem- 
acy," 210. 


"  Biography  (The  Teachers  of  Man- 
kind)," sermon,  258. 

Black,  ,  76. 

Blake,  Admiral,  228,  229. 

Blake,  Dr.  T.  W.  Jex,  57,  116,  117, 
127. 

Bombay,  Fort  of,  I. 

Bonner,  Mrs.  Hypatia  Bradlaugh, 
282. 

Booth,  General,  247,  261. 

Bowen,  Mr.  E.  E.,  89,  117,  138. 

Bradby,  Dr.  E.  H.,  124-126,  141. 

Bradlaugh,  Charles,  282. 

Bradley,  Dr.  (Dean  of  Westminster), 

142,  147-149,  151,  160,  161,  164,  165, 

179,  180. 
Bramwell,  Lord,  250. 
Brazenose,  269. 
Brewer,  Professor,  23. 
Bright,  John,  258. 
British  Association,  106. 
British  Monthly,  260,  322,  325. 
British  Museum,  35. 
Brixton,  19. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  296,  300,  343. 
Brooks,  T.  Archd.,  303-306. 
Brown,  Rev.  T.  R.,  15,  76. 
Browne,  Harold  (Bishop  of  Ely  and 

Winchester),  46,  146. 
Browning,  Robert,  177,  178,  189,  227, 

287-290. 
Browning  Society,  289. 

Bull,  ,  56,  69,  128. 

Buller,  Sir  A.,  39. 

Burne-Jones,  Edward,  145,  222,  341. 

Burne-Jones,  Philip,  145. 

Butler,  Dr.  H.  Montagu,  82,  104,  117, 

120,  123,  124,  135. 
Buzzard,  Dr.,  350. 
Byron,  Lord,  13. 


353 


354 


INDEX 


Cameron,  Julia  Margaret,  277. 
Canterbury  Cathedral,  313-319,  327, 
328. 

Canterbury,  Deanery  of,  339,  340. 

Cantuarian,  The,  323. 

Cardew,  Mr.  Frederic,' 117. 

Cardew,  Lucy  Mary.  See  Farrar,  Mrs. 
Frederic  William. 

Carmarthen,  11,  61. 

Castleton  Bay,  12. 

Caxton,  William,  226. 

"  Chapter  on  Language,"  106,  107. 

Childs,  George  W.,  228,  296,  300. 

"  Christian  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement 
not  inconsistent  with  the  Justice  and 
Goodness  of  God,"  essay,  47. 

Church  Army,  247. 

Church  of  England  Temperance  Soci- 
ety, 250. 

Clerkenwell,  21,  31. 

Cleveland,  President,  300. 

Close,  Dean,  22. 

Cobb,  ,  70,  130. 

Colenso,  Bishop  (Natal),  113-117. 

Colenso  Defence  Fund,  116,  117. 

Coleridge,  Mr.,  205. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  11,  14,  35, 
45.  48,  77.  85.  136,  322. 

Coliseum,  the,  132. 

Congreve,  Mr.,  126,  163. 

"  Connection  between  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,"  Prideaux's,  14. 

Contemporary,  The,  156. 

Cooper,  ,  servant  at  Dean  Farrar's, 

118. 

Cooper,  Fenimore,  13. 

Cornhill  Magazine,  172. 

Cotton,  G.  E.  L.  (Bishop  of  Calcutta), 

53-55.  59.  64,  65,  137.  138.  146. 
Cranmer,  Archbishop,  11,  61  334. 
Creighton,  Bishop,  145. 
Critic,  The,  76. 
Cromwellians,  228. 
Cuyler,  Theo.  L.,  295,  296. 

Daily  Express,  The,  76. 
Daily  News,  The,  76,  256. 
Dale,  Canon,  22. 
Dante,  285,  322. 


"  Darkness  and  Dawn,"  199,  200. 
Darlington,  Mrs.,  325. 
Darwin,  Charles,  104,  107-110,  258. 
"  Dean  Stanley's  Life,"  261. 
"  Deluge,"  article  on,  112, 113. 
"  Descent  of  Man,"  Darwin's,  108. 
Dicey,  Edward,  C.B.,  29. 
Dickens,  Charles,  73. 
Disraeli,   Benjamin  (Lord  Beacons- 
field),  216-218,  261. 
Dixon,  Rev.  Dr.,  10,  76. 

"  Early  Days  of  Christianity,"  196. 
"  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  Hooker's,  14. 
"  Education,"  lecture,  290. 
Edward,  King,  344. 
Edward  the  Confessor,  221. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  265. 
Elliot's  "  Horae  Apocalypticae,"  25,  47. 
Erasmus,  334. 

"  Eric,  or  Little  by  Little,"  1-4,  11,  12, 

14.  15.  33-  41.  71-81. 
"  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Language," 
106,  107. 

"  Eternal  Hope,"  26,  34,  210,  218,  267, 
268,  270,  271,  274,  280,  302,  303,  306, 
33°- 

Evening  Courant,  The,  76. 
Examiner,  The,  76. 

"  Fall  of  Man,  and  Other  Sermons," 

86,  112,  279. 
"  Families  of  Speech,"  lectures,  106, 

107. 

"  Farewell   Thoughts   on  America," 

address,  300. 

Farquhar,  ,  132. 

Farrar,  Rev.  Charles  Pinhorn,  1,  4,  5, 

8-10,  21. 

Farrar,  Mrs.  Charles  Pinhorn,  5-7,  21. 

Farrar,  Cyril  Lytton,  144,  145,  229,  230. 

Farrar,  Rev.  Eric  Maurice,  25,  234, 
248-252,  342,  343. 

Farrar,  Frederic  William,  birth,  1 ;  sent 
to  England,  1 ;  trained  by  his  aunts, 
I,  2 ;  childhood,  1-4 ;  love  of  books, 
3,  13;  sent  to  school  at  Aylesbury, 
4;  at  King  William's  College,  Isle  of 
Man,  4,  10;  not  on  intimate  terms 


INDEX 


355 


with  his  father,  5 ;  his  affection  for 
his  mother,  5-8 ;  letter  to  a  Harrow 
pupil,  6 ;  letters  concerning  his  par- 
ents, 8, 9 ;  vacations  at  Aylesbury,  10 ; 
visits  Bishop  Short  of  Sodor  and 
Man,  10;  love  of  nature,  12;  fond  of 
walking  and  swimming,  12,  13,  88; 
phenomenal  memory,  13, 14 ;  sermon 
that  influenced  his  character,  14; 
King  William's  College  destroyed 
by  fire,  15 ;  Professor  E.  S.  Beesly's 
reminiscences,  16;  fond  of  football, 
18,  89;  an  example  to  his  school- 
mates, 18;  description  of,  19,  20; 
goes  to  London,  19;  at  King's  Col- 
lege, 21 ;  Milton  his  model,  21 ;  his 
college  reports,  22 ;  gains  a  London 
University  scholarship,  22;  defrays 
expenses  of  his  education,  22,  38; 
appointed  Honorary  Fellow  of 
King's  College,  22 ;  a  Sunday  School 
teacher,  22;  intimacy  with  F.  D. 
Maurice  and  Dr.  Plumptre,  22-28 ; 
Dr.  Hayman  and  Sir  Edwin  Ar- 
nold's reminiscences,  26-35;  letter 
from  a  college  friend,  35 ;  "  sizar  " 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  38; 
his  poverty  and  self-denial,  38 ;  ob- 
tains Trinity  scholarship,  38 ;  mem- 
ber of  society  of  "  Apostles,"  39 ; 
despondent  over  mathematics,  39; 
extract  from  "Julian  Home"  illus- 
trating his  college  life,  41-45;  Pro- 
fessor Harold  Browne  and  Dr.  Mill, 
46;  prizes  and  graduation,  47;  anec- 
dotes of  Dr.  Whewell,  47-49;  his 
poem  on  "  The  Arctic  Regions,"  48, 
49.  r37;  wins  Chancellor's  gold 
medal,  49,  137;  letter  from  William 
E.  Robinson,  50;  Judge  Vernon 
Lushington's  recollections,  51,  52; 
assistant  master  at  Marlborough 
College,  53-70;  colleague  of  Dr. 
Cotton,  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  53; 
sketch  by  Canon  Henry  Bell,  56 ; 
devotion  of  his  pupils,  56;  parody 
on  one  of  Horace's  Epistles,  57; 
Sixth  Form,  53-58,  147-171 ;  holiday 
at  Stonehenge,  58 ;  goes  to  Salisbury 


for  ordination,  59,  60;  his  first  ser- 
mon, 60 ;  sketch  by  one  of  his  pupils, 
62;  extract  from  sermon  preached 
at  Marlborough,  63-67;  lines  in 
memory  of  Dr.  Wilkinson,  67 ; 
hymn,  68 ;  his  letters  to  E.  S.  Beesly, 
68-70,  75-77, 126-131 ;  assistant  mas- 
ter at  Harrow,  71-140;  as  a  writer 
of  schoolboy  fiction,  71 ;  pseudonym , 
71;  "Eric,"  "Julian  Home,"  "St. 
Winifred's,"  and  "  The  Three 
Homes,"  71-82;  "Eric"  compared 
with  "  Tom  Brown's  School  Days," 
72;  Dr.  Magee's  tribute  to  "Eric," 
74 ;  letters  referring  to  "  Eric  "  and 
"  St.  Winifred's,"  75-81 ;  as  a  teacher, 
82-94;  sketch  by  Mr.  George  Rus- 
sell, 84-86;  his  interest  in  natural 
history,  84,  88,  139;  Walter  Leaf's 
recollections,  92-96 ;  visit  to  Pales- 
tine, 95,  191,  192;  his  companions, 
95 ;  calls  on  Holman  Hunt  at  Jeru- 
salem, 95;  incident  of  the  revolver, 
95 ;  his  "  Greek  Syntax,"  96-99 ; 
lecture  on  education  delivered  be- 
fore the  Royal  Institution,  99-106; 
letters  from  Charles  Darwin,  104, 
107 ;  from  Frederic  Harrison,  105 ; 
proposed  by  Darwin  for  Fellowship 
of  the  Royal  Society,  and  elected, 
107 ;  his  views  on  evolution,  108 ; 
preaches  sermon  at  Darwin's  funeral, 
109;  his  friendship  with  Thomas 
Huxley,  no;  Matthew  Arnold,  no, 
in ;  writes  "  Seekers  after  God," 
also  sermons  on  "  The  Fall  of  Man  " 
and  "  The  Witness  of  History  to 
Christ:  Hulsean  Lectures,"  112; 
appointed  Honorary  Chaplain  to 
the  Queen,  112;  promoted  Chap- 
lain-in-Ordinary,  112;  his  article  on 
the  "Deluge,"  112;  his  Broad 
Church  views,  and  Bishop  Colenso, 
113-117;  organises  Colenso  Defence 
Fund,  116;  letter  from  T.  W.  Jex 
Blake,  116,  117;  marries  Miss  Lucy 
Mary  Cardew,  117  ;  domestic  life,  118, 
119;  his  children,  118 ;  removal  to  the 
Park,  118;  letters  illustrative  of  the 


356 


INDEX 


Harrow  period,  120-140;  holiday 
tour  to  Rome,  132 ;  lines  on  Hadri- 
an's villa,  133;  visit  to  Overbeck's 
studio,  133 ;  lines  on  picture  called 
"  Marriage,"  133 ;  Dr.  Butler's 
recollections,  135-140;  founder  of 
Natural  History  Society,  139;  his 
school  sermons  at  Harrow,  139; 
candidate  for  head-mastership  of 
Haileybury,  and  his  defeat,  141 ; 
head-master  of  Marlborough,  141- 
190;  sermons  on  "The  Silence  and 
Voices  of  God,"  and  "  In  the  Days 
of  Thy  Youth,"  142;  home  life  at 
Marlborough,  144,  158,  163 ;  Mr.  P. 
E.  Thompson's  reminiscences,  145- 
159;  his  appearance,  146,  147;  shy- 
ness, 155 ;  sketch  by  Rev.  Dr.  James, 
159-164 ;  Professor  C.  E.  Vaughan's 
recollections,  164-169 ;  C.  L.  Graves's 
reminiscences,  169-172;  article  in 
"Cornhill  Magazine"  by  one  of  his 
old  pupils,  172-18 1 ;  grandeur  of  his 
manner,  173 ;  his  reading  of  Job  and 
Isaiah,  174;  his  voice,  174,  175,  259; 
industry,  175,  176;  his  advice  to  his 
pupils,  177 ;  his  friends,  177,  189 ;  as 
a  disciplinarian,  178 ;  sketch  of  his 
domestic  life,  by  his  daughter,  181- 
190 ;  his  curates,  188,  234 ;  "  Life  of 
Christ,"  191-197,  202-213 ;  author's 
preface,  191, 192;  his  critics,  194;  in- 
tense application,  195;  enormous  de- 
mand for  the  book,  196 ;  testimonials, 
196-215;  "  Life  of  St.  Paul,"  196-198; 
"  Early  Days  of  Christianity,"  196 ; 
atrophy  of  right  hand,  196,  197; 
"  The  Life  of  Lives,"  196,  197 ;  its 
preface,  197 ;  "  Darkness  and  Dawn  " 
and  "Gathering  Clouds,"  199-202; 
declines  crown  living  of  Halifax, 
offered  by  Disraeli,  216;  accepts 
from  Disraeli  the  Canonry  of  West- 
minster, 217 ;  his  promotions  involve 
pecuniary  loss,  218;  reluctance  at 
leaving  Marlborough,  218,  219;  be- 
comes attached  to  his  new  cure, 
220;  restores  St.  Margaret's,  221- 
226 ;  window  given  by  London  print- 


ers in  memory  of  Caxton,  226; 
Jubilee  window  of  Queen  Victoria's 
reign,  227;  window  to  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  227;  to  Milton,  228;  to 
Admiral  Blake,  228 ;  the  Lloyd  win- 
dow, 229;  window  in  memory  of 
Cyril  Lytton  Farrar,  229;  lines  for 
memorial  windows  written  by  Tenny- 
son, Browning,  J.  R.  Lowell,  J.  G. 
Whittier,  Lewis  Morris,  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold,  Lord  Lytton,  and  O.  W. 
Holmes,  226-229;  death  of  Cyril 
Lytton  Farrar  in  China,  229,  230; 
his  father's  grief,  230;  writes  "  Me- 
morials of  Cyril  Lytton  Farrar,"  230; 
his  eloquence  and  influence  as  a 
preacher,  231 ;  enormous  congrega- 
tions, 231,  237 ;  selected  to  be  Chap- 
lain to  the  House  of  Commons,  232; 
appointed  Archdeacon  of  Westmin- 
ster, 233 ;  as  a  parish  priest,  234-253 ; 
his  temperance  work,  235-252,  294- 
296 ;  Bishop  Montgomery's  recollec- 
tions, 235-240;  sketch  by  Rev.  W. 
E.  Sims,  240-245  j  Rev.  W.  F.  Som- 
merville's  reminiscences,  245-248 ; 
Rev.  Eric  Farrar's  account  of  his 
temperance  work,  248-252;  his  first 
temperance  sermon  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  248 ;  his  "  Teacher's  Hymn," 
252 ;  preacher  of  "  Eternal  Hope," 
254-283 ;  ranks  among  the  few  great 
pulpit  orators,  254 ;  criticisms  of  his 
style,  254,  262 ;  his  use  of  quotations, 
256,  261 ;  subjects  covered  by  his 
sermons,  258;  splendour  of  his 
rhetoric,  259  ;  opposes  ceremonial- 
ism, 260;  Dean  Stanley  and  Lord 
Beaconsfield,  261 ;  repudiates  doc- 
trine of  everlasting  torment,  263,  266; 
Baxter  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  265 ; 
Dr.  Pusey's  teachings,  265 ;  Charles 
Spurgeon's  views,  265,  266;  descrip- 
tion of  hell,  265,  266;  defends  his 
views  against  Dr.  Pusey's  criticisms, 
268;  corresponds  with  Dr.  Pusey, 
270 ;  his  convictions  on  the  question 
of  eternal  punishment,  in  his  book 
"  Mercy  and  Judgment,"  271-274 ; 


1 


INDEX 


357 


letters  occasioned  by  his  sermons 
on  "  Eternal  Hope,"  275-283 ;  visits 
Canada  and  the  United  States,  284- 
301 ;  his  companions,  284,  297-299 ; 
received  with  enthusiasm,  284,  290, 
297 ;  his  eulogy  on  General  Grant, 
284 ;  lecture  on  Dante,  284-287,  298 ; 
lecture  on  Browning,  287  ;  Browning 
and  J.  S.  Mill,  288,  289;  in  Balti- 
more, 290,  299 ;  preaches  in  Phila- 
delphia, 290-294 ;  on  American 
audiences,  294;  lectures  in  New 
York,  on  temperance,  294-296; 
meets  famous  Americans,  296,  300; 
annoyed  by  reporters,  300;  "  Farewell 
Thoughts  on  America,"  300,  301 ; 
letters  from  readers  of  his  books, 
302-312 ;  Dean  of  Canterbury,  313- 
351 ;  nominated  by  Lord  Rosebery, 
313;  his  inaugural  sermon,  313-316; 
his  restoration  of  the  Cathedral,  nar- 
rated by  Rev.  Ivor  Farrar,  316-318 ; 
sketch  of,  by  an  American,  319,  320; 
in  touch  with  municipal  life,  320; 
revives  custom  of  shaking  hands, 
321 ;  love  of  young  people,  322-324 ; 
Ivor  Farrar's  reminiscences,  322; 
his  favorite  poets,  322;  teaches 
choir  boys,  323;  letters  to  his 
daughter,  324,  342,  343 ;  sketch  by 
Canon  Page  Roberts,  325-331 ;  ex- 
tract from  Canon  Mason's  memorial 
sermon,  331-336;  Hon.  Mrs.  J.  S. 
Northcote's  recollections,  336-339; 
the  Deanery  of  Canterbury,  339,  340 ; 
his  love  of  sacred  art,  340,  341 ; 
illustrious  guests  at  the  Deanery, 
344-346 ;  increasing  •  atrophy  of 
muscles,  346;  his  patience  and 
cheerfulness,  347,  348 ;  not  allowed 
to  resign,  347;  carried  in  a  chair  to 
the  Cathedral,  347 ;  letters  of  sym- 
pathy, 348;  death,  351. 
Farrar,  Mrs.  Frederic  William,  117, 
158,  164,  168,  187,  233,  239,  342,  343, 
348. 

Farrar,  Henry,  1,  4,  22. 

Farrar,  Rev.  Ivor,  118,  316,  322,  343. 

Farrar,  Lilian,  324,  342,  343. 


Farrar,  Percival,  118. 

Farrar,  Reginald,  126,  135,  349. 

Farrar,  Robert,  Bishop  of  St.  David's, 

11,  61  n. 
Ferrier,  Dr.,  350. 
Field,  Cyrus,  296,  300. 

Fleuss,  ,  69. 

Folkestone,  219. 
"  Fo'c'sle  Yarns,"  15. 
Fort  of  Bombay,  1. 
Fortnightly,  The,  156. 
Forum,  The,  132. 
Fowler,  ,  131. 

Frances,   ,  servant  at  Dean  Far- 
rar's, 118. 
"  Friendship  of  Books,  The,"  25. 
Frith,  Colonel,  189,  320. 
Fryer,  ,  57. 

Garfield,  General,  258. 
Garibaldi,  258. 
"  Gathering  Clouds,"  199. 
Gauron,   ,  servant  at  Dean  Far- 
rar's, 118. 
Gerizim,  Mount,  95,  96. 

Gilmore,  ,  57. 

Gladstone,  251. 
Goethe,  33. 
Goldsmith,  13. 
Goschen,  Mr.,  251. 
Goulburn,  Dean,  263. 
Grant,  General,  258,  284. 
Graves,  C.  L.,  169-172. 
"  Greek  Card,"  92,  96. 
"  Greek  Syntax,"  92,  96, 
Griffiths,  Mr.,  106. 
Grove,  Sir  G.,  106. 

Hales,  Professor,  105. 

Hall,  Rev.  Newman,  295. 

Hallam,  Arthur,  39. 

Hamilton,  Walter  Ker  (Bishop  of 

Salisbury),  59. 
Hammond,  J.  L.,  47. 

Hanbury,  ,  69,  130. 

Harris,  Mr.,  120,  138. 
Harrison,  Frederic,  105. 
Harrow,  71-140. 

Harrow  Natural  History  Society,  84. 


358 


INDEX 


Hart,  F.  T.,  39. 

Hawkins,  ,  70. 

Hayrnan,  Dr.,  26. 

Heber,  Reginald,  49,  185. 

Hegan,  Colonel,  321. 

"  History  and  Hopes  of  a  Public 

School,"  sermon,  63. 
Holland,  Sir  Henry,  103. 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  229,  296. 
Holte,  Mrs.  Orford,  145. 
Holy  Land,  95. 
Hood,  Thomas,  260. 
Hooker,  Sir  Joseph,  84,  109. 
Hooker's  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity,"  14. 
Hope,  F.  T.  L.,  pseudonym,  71. 
"  Hope  in  Christ,"  sermon,  86. 
Houghton,  Lord,  39,  105. 

Hubert,  ,  121. 

Hughes,  Judge  Thomas,  145,  189. 
Hulsean  Lectures,  9,  112,  193,  256. 
Hunt,  Holman,  95,  189. 
Huxley,  Thomas  Henry,  102,  106,  108- 

I",  139- 

"  Ideal  Citizen,  The,"  sermon,  258. 

Ilbert,  ,  69,  127,  129. 

"  In  the  Days  of  Thy  Youth,"  sermons, 

63. 142. 143- 
"  Individual  Responsibility,"  250. 
Ingelow,  Jean,  189. 
Ingelow,  William  F.,  95,  96,  192,  284. 
Isaiah,  Book  of,  174. 
Isle  of  Man,  3,  4,  11,  13,  71,  73. 
"  Ivanhoe,"  4. 

James,  Rev.  Dr.,  159,  163  n. 
Jelf,  Dr.  R.  W.,  22-24. 
Jerusalem,  95.' 

Job,  Book  of,  174 ;  sermon  on,  238. 

"John  Bull,"  281. 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  299. 

Journal  of  Education,  157. 

Jowett,  Dr.,  116,  288. 

"  Julian  Home,"  35, 38,  41-46, 71, 78, 83. 

Juvenal,  27. 

Keats,  John,  35,  132. 

King  Edward's  School,  322. 

King  William's  College,  4,  10,  15-19. 


King,  W.  Scott,  260. 
King's  College,  21-35. 
King's  College  Magazine,  29. 
King's  School,  322-324,  329,  332,  351. 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  72. 

"  Language  and  Languages,"  107. 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  23. 

"  Lark  and  the  Cabbage,  The,"  40. 

Lawson,  Sir  Wilfrid,  250,  295. 

Leaf,  Charles  J.,  205. 

Leaf,  Walter,  92,  192. 

Leeds,  79. 

Lees  and  Raper  Memorial  Lecture, 
250. 

Lensman,  Ben-Zion,  307. 

Liddon,  ,  254. 

"  Life  and  Work  of  St.  Paul,"  210. 
"  Life  of  Christ,"  8,  34,  156,  163,  175, 

191-215,  302,  307,  333. 
"  Life  of  Christ  represented  in  Art," 

210,  341. 
"  Life  of  Lives,"  196,  197,  346. 
"  Life  of  St.  Paul,"  196,  197,  198,  302. 
Lightfoot,  Bishop,  148,  194. 
"  Lives  of  the  Fathers,"  199. 
Llanfairfechan,  North  Wales,  337. 
Lloyd  memorial  window,  229. 
Lockyer,  E.  Normand,  145. 
LomonosofF,  A.,  208,  209. 
London  University,  22,  27. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  109,  227,  296. 
Lubbock,  Sir  John,  109,  258. 
Lucas,  Mr.,  144. 

Lushington,  Judge  Vernon,  51,  52. 
Lytton,  Lord,  229. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  14,  49. 

McVickar,  Rev.  Dr.,  300. 

Magee,  Dr.  (Bishop  of  Peterborough) , 

74.  254- 
Maine,  Sir  Henry,  39. 

Mallock,  ,  267. 

Margoliouth,  Professor,  197,  198. 
Marlborough  College,  53-68,  141-190. 
Marlburian,  The,  159,  164. 
Marryat,  Captain,  13. 
Mason,  Canon,  325,  331. 
Matveieo,  Theodor,  209,  210. 


INDEX 


359 


Maurice,  Frederick  Denison,  22,  23-28, 
39,  136,  141,  148,  173,  277,  334. 

Maxwell,  Professor  J.  Clerk,  39. 

May,  ,  228. 

Mayor,  ,  129. 

Melville,  Canon,  22. 

"  Memorials  of  Cyril  Lytton  Farrar," 
144,  230. 

"  Men  I  Have  Known,"  22, 46, 103,  no, 

226,  287,  296. 
"  Mercy  and  Judgment,"  210,  268,  271, 

279. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  264,  289. 

Mill,  Professor,  46. 

Millais,  Everett,  145. 

Millais,  Sir  John  Everett,  145,  189. 

Milton,  John,  4,  21,  44,  45,  85,  88,  138, 

173.  322- 
Minton,  Sir  Samuel,  281. 
Monk,  General,  224. 
Monro,  Cecil,  127. 
Montgomery,  Bishop,  234-240. 
Moore,  Thomas,  13. 
Morning  Advertiser,  The,  90. 
Morris,  Sir  Lewis,  222,  229. 
Mount  Gerizim,  95,  96. 
Miiller,  Max,  107,  141,  148,  231. 
Myer's  poem  of  "  St.  Paul,"  93. 

Nana,  ,  servant  at  Dean  Farrar's, 

118. 

Nasik,  India,  1,  8,  9. 

"  National  Duties,"  sermon,  258. 

"  National  Perils,"  sermon,  258. 

"  Nation's  Curse,  A,"  sermon,  250. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  258,  262. 

Newquay,  Cornwall,  337. 

Nineteenth  Century,  The,  250,  266. 

Norris,  Leslie,  145. 

Northcote,  Hon.  Mrs.  J.  S.,  325,  336. 

"  On  Some  Defects  in  Public  School 

Education,"  lecture,  99-106. 
"  Origin  of  Language,"  107. 
Overbeck,  Friedrich,  133. 
Oxenham,  ,  128. 

Palestine,  95,  191. 
Palmer,  Professor,  320. 


"  Paradise  Lost,"  4. 
"  Paradise  Regained,"  21. 
Parker,  Archbishop,  345. 
Parker,  C.  S.,  M.P.,  105. 
Patteson,  Bis>hop  Coleridge,  163. 
Payne-Smith,  Dean,  313,  316. 
"  Pearson  upon  the  Creed,"  31,  35. 
Percival,  Dr.,  157. 

Perowne,  Dr.  (Bishop  of  Worcester), 
"3- 

"  Philosophy  of  the  Inductive  Sci- 
ences," 47. 

Plumptre,  E.  H.  (Dean  of  Wells),  22, 
23,  212-214. 

Pole,  Cardinal,  346. 

Praed,  Mackworth,  49. 

Prideaux's  "  Connection  between  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,"  14. 

"  Primer,"  the  Latin,  98,  99. 

Pusey,  Dr.,  265,  268,  270. 

Pym,  John,  228. 

Quiver,  The,  71. 

Quotations,  Dr.  Farrar's  use  of,  256- 
258. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  227,  258. 
Reid,  Dr.,  348,  350. 

"  Reminiscences  of  Bishop  Colenso," 
113-117. 

"  Reminiscences  of  Lord  Tennyson," 
49- 

Renan,  Ernest,  106,  212. 

Rendall,  ,  138. 

Ritchie,  Mr.,  251. 
Roberts,  Canon  Page,  325. 
Robinson,  William  E.,  50. 
Rome,  132. 

Rosebery,  Lord,  313,  326. 
Rowsell,  Canon,  145. 
Royal  Normal  College,  247. 
Ruskin,  John,  85,  139,  177. 
Russell,  George,  84. 

"  Sacrifice  of  Iphigenia,  The,"  30. 
Safed,  95,  96. 
St.  David's,  11,  61  n. 
St.  James,  Clerkenwell,  21. 
St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  217-233, 
236  et  seq. 


36o 


INDEX 


St.  Mary's  Church,  Cambridge,  89. 
"St.   Winifred's,  or  the  World  of 
School,"  14,  15,  7^  72,  73,  79,  8i,  83. 
Salisbury,  59. 
Salisbury  Infirmary,  60. 
Salvation  Army,  247. 
Saturday  Review,  The,  77. 
Scott,  Edward  Ashley,  53,  56,  69,  129. 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  238. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  4,  13,  199. 
Sedgwick,  Professor,  105. 
"Seekers  after  God,"  112,  210,  306. 
Seeley,  Professor,  105. 
Sellick,  Mr.,  150. 

"  Shadow  of  Civilization,  The,"  250. 

Shakespeare,  32,  143. 

Shannon,  Rev.  John  Reid,  259. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  13,  35,  132. 

Shenstone,  William,  54. 

Short,  Bishop  (Sodorand  Man),  10,  ri. 

Short,  Mrs.,  10,  ii. 

Shrewsbury  School,  80,  104. 

"  Silence  and  Voices  of  God,"  sermons, 

142,  306. 
Simon  Langton  Schools,  322. 
Sims,  Rev.  W.  E.,  234,  240-245. 
Smith,  Assheton,  157. 
"  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  112. 
Smyth,  Professor,  49. 
"Social  Amelioration,"  sermon,  258. 
"  Social  and  Present  Day  Questions," 

258,  341- 
Sodor  and  Man,  10,  11. 
Somerset,  Protector,  221, 
Sommerville,  Rev.  W.  F.,  234, 245-248. 
Spectator,  The,  76. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  106. 
Spottiswoode,  W.,  103,  109,  116. 
Spurgeon,  Charles,  265,  333. 
"  Stalky  &  Co.,"  72,  74. 
Stanhope,  Spencer,  222. 
Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn   (Dean  of 

Westminster),  177,  189, 258,  261,  284, 

296,  326. 
Stanley,  Lady  Augusta,  296. 

Steel,  ,  138. 

Steel,  A.  G.,  172. 

Stephen,  Sir  J.  Fitzjames,  39. 

Stephen,  Leslie,  264. 


Sterling,  ,  39. 

Stevenson,  Dr.,  247. 
Stonehenge,  58. 
Storr,  F.,  145. 

Strode,  ,  228. 

Sunday  School  Times,  Amer.,  319. 
Swanage,  Dorsetshire,  337. 
Swanston,  Clement  Tudway,  29. 

Tait's  Magazine,  289. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  162. 
Teacher's  Hymn,  252. 
Temperance  League,  250. 
Temperance  work  of  Dr.  Farrar,  248- 

252,  294-296. 
Temple,  Archbishop,  116,  250,  329,  345, 

346,  347- 
Temple  Magazine,  39. 
Tennyson,  Hallam,  145. 
Tennyson,  Lord,  5,  39,  49,  50,  71,  177, 

178,  189,  227,  322,  343,  344. 

Theobald,  ,  70,  120. 

Thomas,  Rev.  John  Shearm,  142,  148, 

156. 

Thomas,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  181-190,  339. 

Thompson,  Sir  Henry,  145. 

Thompson,  Mr.  P.  E.,  39,  145-159. 

"Three  Homes,  The,"  71. 

Thring,  Dr.,  84. 

"  Timbuctoo,"  49,  50. 

Tivoli,  132,  133. 

Tolstoy,  Count  Leo,  258. 

"  Tom  Brown's  School  Days,"  72. 

Tomkinson,  ,  56,  129. 

Trench,  Archbishop,  39. 

Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  38-52,  71. 

Turner,  ,  69. 

Turner,  Caroline.    See  Farrar,  Mrs. 

Charles  Pinhorn. 
Turner,  Joseph  Mallord  William,  342. 
Tyndall,  John,  103,  106,  139. 

United  Kingdom  Alliance,  250. 

Vanderbilt,  Mr.  C,  300. 
Vaughan,  Professor  C.  E.,  164-169. 
Vaughan,  Charles  T.  (Dean  of  Llan- 

daff),  71,  122,  123,  130,  138,  147,  202, 

203,  214,  215,  220,  230. 


INDEX 


Vaughan,  Mrs.  C.  T.,  202. 

Vesey,  Archdeacon,  131,  216-219,  233, 

284,  297-300. 
Vesey,  Mrs.,  298. 
Voltaire,  238. 
Volunteers,  247. 

"  Vow  of  the  Nazarite,  The,"  sermon, 
250. 

Wales,  Prince  and  Princess  of,  344. 
Wallace,  A.  R.,  109. 

Warren,  ,  69,  127. 

Watson,  H.  W.,  127,  138. 
Watts,  Dr.,  275. 
Wedgwood,  Hensleigh,  107. 


Wellesley,  Dean,  217. 

Westcott,  B.  F.  (Bishop  of  Durham), 
92,  122,  138,  194,  277,  278. 

Whewell,  Dr.,  47-49,  85,  137. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  228,  296. 

Wilberforce,  Archdeacon,  22,  250. 

Wilkinson,  Dr.  M.  M.,  64,  67,  159. 

Wilson,  Archdeacon,  105,  106. 

Wiltshire  College,  53. 

Winthrop,  Miss,  344. 

"  Witness  of  History  to  Christ,"  ser- 
mons, 112,  256. 

Wordsworth,  William,  13,  45,  85. 

Zelic,  John  Sheridan,  320. 


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